Gerald Belz, an 18-year-old who was studying to be a doctor, was found unconscious outside an academic building. He had visited his parents just days before.
CHICAGO — On Sunday evening, Gerald Belz, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa, was lingering at his parents’ house in Cedar Rapids, a half-hour from the campus in Iowa City. It had just started snowing.
His father, Michael Belz, popped his head in Gerald’s bedroom. “I told him with the cold and everything, the roads are going to get slippery pretty quick,” Mr. Belz recalled.
So Gerald gathered up his things, said his goodbyes and drove back to his dorm. Around 10 p.m., he called his mother to give her the customary assurance: He had arrived safely.
That was the last night that Gerald’s parents spoke with him. Early Wednesday morning, he was found unconscious outside, a short walk from his dorm, and died later at a hospital. Investigators believe his death was related to the subzero temperatures that plunged Iowa and all of the Midwest into a miserable and dangerous cold this week.
