Police investigating if two men died of exposure

Police are investigating whether cold weather played a role in the deaths of two men found in separate locations in Colorado Springs this morning.

The first death was reported shortly after 8 a.m., when police received a call that an elderly man was lying outside a home in the 600 block of East Monument Street covered with snow.

Colorado Springs police Sgt. Jim Sokolik said that a preliminary investigation suggested the man had died of exposure.

The man’s name was being withheld pending family notification, and no further details were immediately available.

In a separate call, police were summoned just before 10 a.m. to investigate a body found in a trash receptacle in the 1700 block of Ivy Place, west of the intersection of South Nevada Avenue and Cheyenne Boulevard in the Ivywild neighborhood. The Police Major Crimes unit was brought in to investigate.

It’s unknown if the death was suspicious or weather-related.

“Major Crimes will make a determination if they think it’s natural or if further investigation is needed,” Sokolik said.

The El Paso County Coroner’s Office will perform autopsies, police said.