Coroner: Exposure, meth factors in woman’s death

Published August 2, 2014 2:01pm ET



SOUTH ROXANA, Ill. (AP) — A coroner says a southwestern Illinois woman whose body was found slumped in a rental van in February died of exposure to the cold.

Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn says that while methamphetamine and other drugs contributed to 42-year-old Frances Ragan’s death, the East Alton woman succumbed to hypothermia.

Authorities have said Ragan was found dead Feb. 8 in a rental van on a South Roxana store’s parking lot.

Four southwestern Illinois men later were charged with methamphetamine-related counts. Authorities allege those defendants manufactured and dealt meth, and that Ragan partook in it.