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Autopsy Shows That Prime Tyme Owner Died Of Hypothermia

The Prime Tyme Soul Food Cafe in Winston-Salem. EDDIE GARCIA/WFDD

A newly released autopsy report gives more details on the death of a Winston-Salem restaurant owner. 

Tonya Glenn Bess was found outside of Prime Tyme Soul Food Café on November 16th of last year.

According to an autopsy report released Wednesday, the 51-year-old Bess died of hypothermia while she was intoxicated on alcohol.

Bess's husband discovered his wife in the restaurant's parking lot a few hours before it was scheduled to open.  She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police originally declared her death suspicious in nature.

The autopsy report shows Bess had a high level of alcohol in her blood and indicates she had a history of chronic alcohol abuse.

It also says the clothing she was wearing “would have been inadequate for long exposure to the outside temperatures that night.”

The autopsy was performed by Dr. Mark Giffen, a Forsyth County medical examiner.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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