Minnesota, Pennsylvania Carriers Find Bodies While Delivering

By: Jim Rosenberg The body of a woman was found early Thursday by a newspaper carrier and his mother in Bristol Township, Pa., according to a report this morning on Calkins Media's phillyburbs.com.

Carrier Rick Bak, who delivers a Calkins newspaper with his mother, Susan Kieffer, were out working at about 4:30 a.m. when she saw what she thought was a mannequin lying on a street. Bak said he suggested checking on it.

They found the body of a woman in her fifties face up in the snow and without a pulse, Bak said. Not covered with snow, the woman died after snow from the recent storm stopped.

The woman was identified, but no crime is suspected, according to Bristol Township Lt. Chick McGuigan, who referred questions on a cause of death to the county coroner.

In a similar incident a week ago in Coon Rapids, Minn., a carrier apparently failed to notify his or her newspaper about the incident.

Local and county authorities confirmed broadcast and later print reports that a man identified only as a newspaper carrier made a 911 call to inform police that the body of a man was lying on a street in the Minneapolis suburb early last Friday morning.

Investigators identified the 46-year-old man as a local resident, said there were no signs of trauma, and were awaiting toxicology reports.

Neither Coon Rapids Police nor Anoka County Sheriff's investigators knew which newspaper the carrier was delivering. A call to the circulation director of the Minneapolis Star Tribune was not returned.

The story was carried by St. Paul's KSTP television news and its Web site and later by other broadcast outlets and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. A message left with the KSTP reporter was not returned. A brief wire story also later appeared. It was picked up by The Daily Globe, almost 200 miles away in Worthington, but apparently not by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The weekly Anoka County Union had no information on the carrier.

A journalist familiar with the town of Coon Rapids said the only paper likely to be delivered there at 6:00 AM is the Star Tribune.