AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have decided I will be skipping the "Escaped Deaths" segments. I may put them in a separate spinoff fanfic. Also, the show did not state where this incident took place. I went with Philadelphia as a nod to the victim's nickname.

The next file reads "INCIDENT 0119102003" and has a picture of a refrigerator on it.

Ruby: "Incident 0119102003 is up next."

Shannon: "That's the one with the frozen meat locker. The last death involved heat, and now we have a death involving cold."

The image on the file shows a man wearing a white shirt, slumped down inside what appears to be a frozen meat locker, with various cuts of meat around him. His skin has turned blue.

Shannon: "Let's see what happens when you try to make a human popsicle, shall we?"

Zoom in.

The video begins with the same image of the freezing man as seen on the file.

Date of Incident: 19 October, 2003

Location of Incident: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Shannon: (Narrating) "This is Billy DeMayo, and he is a few short breaths away from freezing to death. I'm sure you might think that's not a bad way to go, kind of like falling asleep. But if Billy could talk right now he'd tell you a different story."

The video cuts to what seems to be the inside of a large room-size meat freezer. Several boxes are strewn on the floor, rows of shelves hold jars, bottles and boxes, and cuts of meat are hanging from hooks. Billy wheels in several more boxes on a trolley.

Shannon: (Narrating) "His friends called him 'South Philly Billy'. His cousin used his connections to the Mafia to land him this job at a butcher shop."

A new shot shows Billy rearranging several boxes inside the freezer.

Shannon: (Narrating) "It was a sweet deal. And unlike his co-workers, he didn't mind the cold. The temperature inside the freezer could drop as low as an ultra-chilly -10 degrees Fahrenheit, or -23.3 degrees Celsius."

Suddenly the door of the meat freezer closes shut behind Billy. Another worker is seen locking it from the inside.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Sometimes as a prank, a worker would be locked inside for a minute for two."

Billy rushes over to the door and begins banging on it and yelling in an attempt to get the other employee's attention.

Billy: "HEY! The door's jammed!"

The other worker is seen walking away from the door, ignoring Billy's yelling.

Shannon: (Narrating) "But when it happened to Billy, it was no joke."

Billy is still banging on the door and yelling, to no avail.

Shannon: (Narrating) "His body temperature starts at a healthy 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). But once the freezer door slammed shut, his death clock started ticking."

A small graphic of a thermometer is displayed in the top left corner of the screen, alongside a clock. As the clock starts counting up, the temperature value next to the thermometer begins to drop.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Time and temperature were now Billy's enemies."

Time is briefly sped up to allow ten minutes to elapse.

Shannon: (Narrating) "After ten minutes the palms of Billy's hands have fallen to 60°F (15.5°C). If you've ever been too long in the cold without gloves, I'm sure you know that that kind of cold hurts like hell."

Billy is seen rubbing his palms against his neck and arms out of desperation to warm them up. A CGI shot of his hand is shown, the blood vessels visible. His capillaries are shown constricting to limit heat loss, beginning at his fingertips and working its way up his arm.

Shannon: (Narrating) "The capillaries at the surface of Billy's hands are now constricting to redirect his blood deeper into his torso, so it can keep his vital organs functioning. This response to cold is one of the human body's built-in defence mechanisms."

A shot of a foot with blackened toes is shown.

Shannon: (Narrating) "The body will happily sacrifice fingers and toes to frostbite to ensure survival."

Back in the meat freezer the clock now reads seventeen minutes. Billy is rubbing his palms on his face.

Shannon: (Narrating) "After 17 minutes in the freezer, Billy's core body temperature has fallen to 97°F (36.1°C). This triggers a major reaction."

A CGI shot of a human head is shown, with the brain visible. The hypothalamus lights up.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Deep inside his brain, his hypothalamus has detected this temperature drop, and orders the construction of the entire web of surface capillaries around his body. His body-warming blood is now in full retreat."

Billy is shown shivering violently. He is keeping his hands under his armpits.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Once Billy's core temperature falls below 95°F (35°C), hypothermia begins to set in. It'll continue to fall about a degree every half hour."

Several shots show Billy desperately trying anything he can think of to warm himself up, with little success. He eventually breaks into a coughing fit.

Shannon: (Narrating) "By now Billy's core temperature has fallen below 90°F (32.2°C), and his eyesight has begun to fail."

A POV shot shows Billy looking at his watch, the dial becoming increasingly blurry.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Such simple things as the dial on his watch become gibberish. This form of hypothermia is known as profound hypothermia."

Eventually, Billy sits down on the floor of the freezer. The thermometer and timer are still ticking down and up, respectively.

Shannon: (Narrating) "As Billy's core temperature falls his blood begins to thicken and slow, reducing its ability to transport oxygen to his tissues."

A CGI shot of Billy's heart is shown behind his ribcage, as its rhythm becomes increasingly erratic. His body temperature is now around 86°F (30°C).

Shannon: (Narrating) "His nerve cells are becoming too cold to transmit electrical impulses, and so his heart begins to beat erratically."

Billy is now sprawled on the floor of the meat freezer amongst boxes, his skin turning blue and his muscles twitching. He has apparently taken his shirt and trousers off, down to just his underwear.

Shannon: (Narrating) "Right before his heart stops forever, a final pang of consciousness breaks through his icy body. Maybe… it wasn't such a good idea to have smuggled cuts of meat out of the back door."

A picture of an adolescent girl is shown, looking around 7 months pregnant.

Shannon: (Narrating) "And a really bad idea to have impregnated his boss's seventeen-year-old granddaughter."

A replay of the scene where Billy is initially locked in the freezer is shown. Eventually, cut back to his now-lifeless body on the freezer floor.

Shannon: (Narrating) "You know, there's an old Italian proverb that reads 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'. Rest in peace, South Philly Billy."

A final shot is near the late Billy DeMayo's face with ice crystals now forming on it.

WAY TO DIE #293

FREEZE DIED

Back to the Sharuby couple in their office.

Ruby: "That was, like, a cold-blooded murder."

Shannon: "Indeed. If you're wondering why Billy stripped down, it's because right before one dies from hypothermia they can become disoriented and take their clothes off. The phenomenon is called paradoxical undressing, and it affects between twenty and fifty per cent of hypothermia deaths. Quite often when people die from hypothermia in urban environments they are mistakenly believed to have been sexually assaulted because of this."

Ruby: "Wow. That is like, grim. Anyways it's my turn to narrate the next one, right?"

Shannon: "Yes it is."

Ruby marks the file and wheels over to get the next one.