Homeless man from Poland dies in the woods

Monroe - No one else has claimed to be Stanislaw Lipka’s friend or family, save the man who found him in the woods behind the ShopRite Plaza on March 1. So for now, the Monroe Police have turned to the Polish Embassy in New York City to see if anyone wants his body brought back home. Lipka’s frozen body was found a week ago Wednesday afternoon after another Polish man came into police headquarters to report that he had discovered his friend dead in the woods behind ShopRite. Police believe Lipka, 51, had been living in the woods for some time. There was no makeshift house or tent in the area where the body was found. “He would just lay down and sleep,” said Det. Jim Frankild. No foul play is suspected. Lipka may have simply drunk too much and never woke up. The temperatures during the last few evenings of February never rose above 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the days barely made it beyond freezing. Police do no know how long he may have been outdoors. But Lipka was no stranger to police. He had been living on the streets for the last few months and had been picked up several times on charges such as open container violations, disorderly conduct and petty larceny. He was last arrested Feb. 7 on a charge of stealing beer from ShopRite. He spent the next two weeks in the Orange County Jail until he was released Feb. 21. An autopsy conducted March 3 at the Arden Hill campus of Orange Regional Medical Center in Goshen seemed to confirm the police’s belief of accidental death. “The doctor said during the autopsy that a sober person who fell asleep in the freezing cold would wake up from their body shivering so much,” said Frankild. “She said that someone who is intoxicated, who passes out, does not wake up from the shivering and can end up freezing to death, which is what we believe happened here. “ It will be eight weeks before the results of the toxicology tests are back. Meanwhile, Stanislaw Lipka’s body is being stored at the morgue at Arden Hill Hospital. Police are working with the Polish Consulate in the city to find out when and where he entered the country and what his immigration status was. In the meantime, police ask the public to contact them if they knew Lipka, if he had friends or family or what part of Poland he was from.