Scotts Bluff Deputy County Attorney John Childress says an autopsy showed exposure to the cold was the cause of death for a man who died in a fatal traffic accident on an access road adjacent to the Scottsbluff Menard's store. The body of 49 year old Shawn O'Donahue of Gering was found on the road around 6:45 Monday morning by a jogger from Colorado who was staying at one of the nearby motels.

O'Donahue's car veered off the road at a high rate of speed and went hard into a retention pond east of the store, but Childress says the autopsy found no evidence of trauma or internal bleeding. O'Donahue managed to get out of the partially submerged car, which was in three to four feet of water, but collapsed on the road.

Childress said the closest the autopsy could pin the time death was between 10 Sunday night and five Monday morning. Childress said there were credible reports that O'Donahue had been drinking, but the extent won't be known until toxicology reports return four to five weeks from now.

O'Donahue is survived by his brother Michael and his fiancee Pamela Nolde.