A paraplegic man died of exposure and hypothermia after his ex-girlfriend left him alone in the woods at a remote hunting camp in Georgia.
According to Upson County Sheriff Dan Kilgore, Troymaine Johnson had spent “a good two nights and part of one morning” before statements from his ex-girlfriend, Ruby Kate “Katie” Coursey made statements to deputies that sent them on a search for him.
“I did a bad thing,” Coursey allegedly told police in a phone call in which she admitted, “I hurt Troymaine. I took him out of the car and left him in the woods.”
Deputies found Johnson’s body on March 17 after receiving the call and organizing a search. They found him after coming upon a driveway with a damaged entry gate.
“The gate had been pushed in ― hit so hard the concrete posts had pulled up,” Kilgore said. “They drove down in, some 150 to 200 yards off the road, and located his body on the ground near a hunting camp.”
“I can’t imagine the desperation he must have felt while lying in the middle of a cold, dark forest, waiting on death to take him,” Kilgore told The Huffington Post.
While autopsy results put the cause of death as hypothermia, Kilgore said that it was unclear how long Johnson had been suffering out in the woods.
“It’s very hard to prove how long he lived after she cruelly left him out in that,” the sheriff said “One would hope it wasn’t long. It was uncharacteristically cold here that week. Temperatures got down into 20s.”
Coursey has since been charged with felony murder and felony neglect of a disabled adult.