British Columbia's frigid weather appears to have claimed another life. This time the victim is Etorina Bassani, an elderly Abbotsford, B.C. woman, whose frozen body was found in her driveway on Saturday.
The grim find by a neighbour who alerted police came the day after a homeless Vancouver woman burned to death in a makeshift cardboard shelter she was heating with candles.
Neighbour Kevin Spafford said the body of 87-year-old Bassani was discovered at around 1:00 p.m. Saturday. He said the widow may have fallen and hit her head.
"She was just a wonderful person,'' he said.
She was found dressed in a winter coat and slippers, a sign perhaps that something may have gone wrong in the house. Her husband passed away about 12 years ago.
Abbotsford Police Sgt. Daffydd Hermann says officers went to the woman's house after a man reported his neighbour had frozen outside.
Hermann says the cause of death has not yet been determined.
He says as the body was frozen, the woman had apparently been there some time.
The officer says it's not uncommon for elderly people to collapse due to exhaustion if they're shovelling snow or clearing ice.
The coroner has been called in to investigate the death.
With a report from The Canadian Press
