BSU student found unconscious, dies hours later

Bemidji police are investigating the death of a 20-year-old student at Bemidji State University who was found unconscious in a wooded area near campus early Wednesday.

Sandra Lommen, a nursing student from Bloomington, left a party at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, intending to walk to her Bemidji State University dorm room. Instead, she was found unconscious and smelling of alcohol six hours later.

Bemidji Police were called to an area near 10th Street NW and Rice Avenue at 8:30 Wednesday morning when a woman noticed Lommen laying in the woods. Lommen was breathing at that time and rushed to Sanford Medical Center, suffering from hypothermia. She died later.

Police Chief Mike Mastin said a preliminary investigation suggests Lommen took a wrong turn on her way home, heading west toward the edge of town, rather than east toward campus.

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At some point, she left the road, walked into the woods and fell into a creek. She crawled out of the water, but didn't make it out of the woods.

From the information gathered so far, Mastin does not suspect foul play. There was only one set of footprints in the woods, he said, indicating that she was walking alone.

A likely explanation, Mastin said, is that Lommen was drinking and got lost. But he said that is speculation at this point.

"We had some indication of some odor of alcohol," he said. "We don't have an official level of alcohol. It's very possible from what we could observe that she was at a party and someone spilled a drink on her."

An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Mastin said if Lommen, who was underage, was drinking that night, his goal is to find the person who gave her the alcohol. Serving an alcoholic beverage to a minor is a gross misdemeanor, he said.