EXCLUSIVE: Authorities were investigating whether a 53-year-old Maywood woman whose partially clothed body was found off Route 17 North in Rochelle Park this morning may have shed her own clothes, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.
Christine Bezak of Maywood, was reported missing by her husband last night, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
“There are no outward signs of a homicide right now,” Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “but an autopsy must be done to reach a final determination.”
The prosecutor added that she’d had a history of alcohol abuse, and that empty bottles found near the body were being tested to determine whether they were hers.
Bezak’s body was found in a grassy area behind a row of bushes around 8:30 a.m. near Passaic Street and the BMW dealership at the Maywood border, he said.
Molinelli confirmed that she was partially clothed and that garments were found nearby.
However, he declined to comment on whether she might have died of hypothermia after succumbing to what is commonly known as “paradoxical undressing.”
Shortly before death, some people will remove their clothes, as if they were burning up, when they are actually freezing. As a result, some who have frozen to death are found naked and then misidentified as victims of a violent crime.
The exact reasons aren’t known, but experts suspect the phenomenon occurs when fine blood vessels near the surface of the skin contract in reaction to cold.
This automatically limits heat loss and diverts blood to the vital organs.
Eventually, however, the contracting muscles are exhausted. Blood rushes into the skin, producing a deep flush and a sensation of being too hot.
Hypothermia clouds judgment, which could lead to undressing, scientists say.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the syndrome “usually occurs among risk groups such as elderly people, homeless persons, psychiatric patients and persons who function in cold environments or are unintentionally exposed to such conditions.”
Although it usually occurs in extremely cold conditions, incidents have been found when temperatures were in the 60s, authorities say.
Victims often crawl into a hole or space — such as the bushes where Bezak’s body was found — in an attempt at burrowing for safety.
This, the experts say, is quickly followed by unconsciousness and then death.
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