At 8:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, an Anchor Point resident found the body of a woman in the cab of his truck, which was parked in the driveway of his home.
Anchor Point EMS responded and confirmed that the woman was dead, troopers said.
The victim was Ruthie May Coates, 57, of Anchor Point. An autopsy found the cause of death to be hypothermia, said Alaska State Trooper Investigator Dane Gilmore, but other results were not released as of press time.
"At this point, I have nothing to substantiate that foul play was involved, but the investigation is continuing until we can eliminate that entirely," Gilmore said.
Coates spent New Year's Eve at the Anchor Point VFW, he said.
"We're still trying to establish the time she left," he said. "She was found about three-tenths of a mile from the VFW, and it was on the way to her house."
Gilmore said the man who found Coates' body knew the victim, but only indirectly.
"He was very surprised," Gilmore said.
The Alaska State Troopers joined a national Impaired Driving Blitz program to crack down on drunken driving over the holidays, and warned Alaskans in advance with the slogan "Drive hammered, get nailed."
Under the program, troopers worked overtime hours and focused on vehicle stops.
Last season, between Dec. 28, 2001, and Jan. 1, 2002, troopers made 14 DWI arrests statewide.
This season the program began one day earlier. From Dec. 27, through January 1, troopers made 11 DWI arrests.
Troopers in the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak region worked 65.5 hours of overtime on the program, stopping 128 vehicles and making six DWI arrests.
In Southeast Alaska, 142 vehicles were stopped in 58 hours of overtime with no arrests. Troopers in the Fairbanks area stopped 191 vehicles in 90 hours of overtime for four DWI arrests.
"Overtime, by definition, is extra time worked beyond your normal schedule, so this doesn't distract from their routine law enforcement work," said trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson. "On the contrary, the extra presence in the community is good for law enforcement efforts in general.
"We certainly see the benefit of this type of program -- lives saved, etc."
"We're very pleased with the numbers from this campaign," said Maj. Don Bowman, administrative commander of the troopers. "It seems that people really took our message to heart.
"As you can see, we made a large number of traffic stops, but found that most people were either not drinking or had designated drivers," he said.
"We consider this an extremely successful campaign so far."
Chris Bernard can be reached at cbernard@homer news.com.
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