A missing Kansas elementary school teacher was discovered dead in the snow just 300 yards from where surveillance footage last captured her Friday as a massive winter storm swept the country.
The body of 28-year-old Rebecca Rauber was found covered in snow in a wooded area of Emporia on Sunday, near where she was last seen leaving a bar days earlier, police told KWCH.
Police said Rauber was located by K-9 Daisy of K-9 Search and Rescue Kansas.
“Not the outcome that we had all hoped and prayed for, but our thoughts and prayers are with that family,” Emporia Police Chief Edward Owens told the outlet.
“Just wish we could have found her a little sooner.”
Rauber, a second-grade teacher at Riverside Elementary School, is believed to have died from hypothermia just hours after she disappeared.
Police said the family of the young teacher has been notified and that an autopsy is pending to determine her cause of death.
Rauber was reported missing early Saturday morning after leaving the Town Royal bar on foot without her purse, phone or a jacket.
She was last seen on surveillance footage leaving the bar during the ferocious winter storm at around 11:37 p.m.
Temperatures were around 3 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 13, when she is believed to have left the bar.
Police thanked the local community and residents for their “outpouring of care and assistance” during the search.
The Emporia Public School District said the beloved teacher’s death was “felt deeply across our district.”
“Our hearts are with Ms. Rauber’s family, friends, students, and all who were touched by her life and dedication to education. She was a valued member of our school community, and her loss is felt deeply across our district,” the district said in a press release, according to KVOE.
“At this time, we are focused on supporting our students and staff as they process this difficult news. Counselors and district support teams will be available at our schools to provide care and assistance for anyone who may need it.”
Rauber’s death marks another fatality linked to the deadly national snowstorm dubbed Winter Storm Fern.
At least 13 people have died, with millions of others left without power, after the storm pummeled 34 states with snow and ice on Sunday, according to USA Today.
The plunging temperatures also turned deadly elsewhere, with at least two men in Louisiana dying from hypothermia in connection with the storm, according to the state’s Department of Health.
Five New Yorkers were found dead on Saturday due to the sheer cold before the snow even fell.
In Michigan, officials announced the recovery of the body of Lucas Mattson on Saturday, a 19-year-old University of Michigan student, last seen around 1 a.m. Friday, walking alone without a coat, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department.
As snow and sleet fell across more than two-thirds of the nation, more than 11,600 flight cancellations were reported by Sunday evening, according to the FlightAware tracking site.
The powerful storm also caused major blackouts in affected areas, leaving more than 1 million customers without electricity on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Tennessee alone had more than 300,000 outage reports, with Mississippi and Louisiana each reporting more than 140,000 customers without power.
Other states experiencing widespread outages included Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Alabama.
