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Lucas Parker Mattson (Photo: Memorial page)
University of Michigan student Lucas Mattson, 19, of Juneau, Alaska, was legally intoxicated and froze to death before being found off campus in Ann Arbor on Jan. 24, the Detroit Free Press reports, citing an autopsy report it obtained.
The engineering student had attended a Delta Chi fraternity party on Hill Street before he was found.
The autopsy report showed Mattson had a blood alcohol level of 0.156—almost twice the legal limit for driving in Michigan—when he was found in a yard in the 1900 block of Cambridge Road, a few blocks from the fraternity house, John Wisley of the Free Press reports.
"It is my opinion that this individual’s cause of death is ascribed to hypothermia (environmental cold exposure)," pathologist Dr. Randy Tashjian wrote in the report. "Other significant conditions contributing to death include acute ethanol intoxication. The manner of death is classified as an accident."
On a memorial page, his parents wrote:
We are so proud of him, not only for what he had accomplished but more importantly, the man he was. Lucas was kind, thoughtful, cared for everyone, and was brilliant. Lucas would call home daily and text message multiple times a day telling us about his classes, plans for the day, friends, and activities. We met his college friends, and they shared amazing stories of their friendship, his kindness, and his dreams. They described his smile, laugh, and how his personality would make a room glow.
Lucas was a National Honor Society member who earned an academic scholarship to attend the University of Michigan studying civil engineering. He was on track to graduate a year early. He had just earned an internship at a civil engineering firm in Juneau, Alaska which he planned to work at during Summer 2026.
Lucas was the most “unfailingly kind soul” we have ever known! Lucas had a great passion for music, he taught himself how to play piano by ear at age 4 1⁄2 and by age 5 he requested to take piano lessons which he took from 5 years of age through the fifth grade. He loved all music and shared that love with his friends and family, sometimes sending them 80-song playlists.
