Unfortunate circumstances

Dead homeless man: no evidence of foul play

The homeless man's death is now unlikely to have been caused by someone else (symbolic image).

(Bild: Andi Schiel)

Contrary to earlier fears, the death of the homeless man who was discovered in a garage driveway in Vienna-Neubau on Monday morning was not due to foul play. The 28-year-old man was found on Monday by a female driver who had hit him lightly.

The death drama surrounding a homeless man who was hit by a car in Lindengasse, 7th district, has been largely clarified. Initially, it was assumed that the 28-year-old man had been hit by a car in the garage driveway by a local resident when leaving the garage and had possibly died through no fault of his own.

28-year-old can be attributed to the drug scene
Following an autopsy on Tuesday, the all-clear was given: Investigators now assume that the man's death - subject to the results of the toxicology report - is a chain of unfortunate circumstances. The man in question was a 28-year-old homeless Austrian citizen who was involved in the drug scene, among other things. The man's relatives have since been identified.

Frostbite or overdose as cause of death
The front wheel of the local resident's vehicle had only grazed his sleeping bag and dragged the already dead man along with it. The cause of his death is now likely to have been his "extremely poor general state of health". The drug addict could have frozen to death or died of an overdose - perhaps both, according to the conclusion.

A sad detail: it was only on Sunday that street workers approached the 28-year-old and tried to persuade him to spend the night in the Caritas Gruft emergency shelter - but the man refused. The social workers then gave him the sleeping bag that had been found on him on Monday.