Autopsy results awaited for 19-year-old found dead after concert

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El Dorado County authorities said there were no obvious signs of foul play when 19-year-old Alyssa Byrne’s body was discovered in a South Lake Tahoe snow drift, but stressed they would wait for a full autopsy to determine a cause of death.

Byrne went missing after a New Year’s Eve celebration at the Snow Globe Music Festival in South Lake Tahoe and wasn’t seen again until her body was discovered Friday, about a half-mile away from Lake Tahoe Community College, where the festival was held.

A utility worker found the body about 10 feet from a road. The body was not visible from the road because of high piles of snow.

Byrne was fully clothed, with no visible trauma. El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies are investigating her death.
‘Our preliminary investigation with this morning’s discovery, it would tend to point in the direction that Alyssa had elected to walk home from the event,’ Paul Howell of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department told reporters at a news conference last week. Officials say there was a long wait for shuttle buses from the community college, prompting some concert-goers to leave on foot. Although officials are not commenting yet on a cause of death, it appears possible that Byrne may have fallen off the road while walking along it. The temperature overnight fell to between zero and 10 degrees.

Byrne was staying at the Horizon Casino across the Nevada border.
Hundreds of people gathered in Byrne’s hometown of Petaluma for a vigil Friday night. Her father issued a statement thanking those who helped search for his daughter, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported.

“Our entire family is devastated,” the statement said. “We were still holding out hope that she would be found safe. We will miss Alyssa and she will be in our hearts forever.”

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— A Times staff writer and Fox 40