Man found dead on South Side is season’s 9th cold death

A man found dead inside a building Monday in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side died of cold exposure, authorities said.

Officers responded to a well-being check just after noon at a home in the 5900 block of South Prairie Avenue, according to Chicago Police. Officers and firefighters forced entry into the building and found 79-year-old Paul Herring dead.

An autopsy found Herring died of hypothermia and exposure to cold, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Herring is the season’s ninth confirmed cold-related death in Cook County, the medical examiner’s office confirmed. Last winter, at least 15 cold-related deaths were reported.