# Filmmaker Freezes to Death Making Homeless Documentary **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047 "2013-04-07T00:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/1 "2013-04-07T00:28:16Z")
A young filmmaker is believed to have frozen to death while making a documentary about sleeping rough on the streets as he tried to impress television bosses. Lee Halpin planned to spend this week on the streets of Newcastle experiencing and filming what life is like for those who are living rough. But three days after embarking on the project talented Lee, who lived with his family in Heaton, Newcastle, was found dead in a boarded-up hostel on Westgate Road, Newcastle. It is not yet known how he died, but it’s feared the 27-year-old may have succumbed to hypothermia. > **[Filmmaker who 'froze to death' while sleeping rough for project in -4C...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304443/Lee-Halpin-Filmmaker-27-freezes-death-sleeps-rough-make-documentary-homelessness.html)** > > Lee Halpin planned to spend this week on the streets of Newcastle experiencing and filming what life is like for those who are living rough. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/2 "2013-04-07T00:39:02Z")
Down the bottom of the linked article it mentions that two men have been arrested in connection with the death of Lee Halpin. So maybe not hypothermia afterall. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/3 "2013-04-07T01:46:51Z")
Unless one of the men was Mr. Freeze. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/4 "2013-04-07T03:33:59Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Down the bottom of the linked article it mentions that two men have been arrested in connection with the death of Lee Halpin. > > So maybe not hypothermia afterall. AFAIK the arrests were for supplying drugs. hard to say what has happened at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/5 "2013-04-07T08:15:22Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > AFAIK the arrests were for supplying drugs. hard to say what has happened at the moment. Which is why I said ‘maybe’. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/6 "2013-04-07T17:15:29Z")
I wonder for he’s been drinking. That’ll cause you to be more susceptible to hypothermia. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/8 "2013-04-07T19:53:13Z")
Watched an old movie last evening, Sullivan [something] wherein a director researching a film on the homeless got himself wrongly thrown in prison. Of course in the movie he was redeemed and got fame and the blond. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/9 "2013-04-08T01:34:43Z")
The article says it was -4.2 Celsius or 24 - 25 degrees Fahrenheit the night of the death That’s not so cold that a few blankets and some outdoor clothing wouldn’t keep your core temperature up. Plus if it you got exposed you’d wake up pretty fast. I’d say chances are about 99.9% drugs or alcohol wee involved in the death. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/10 "2013-04-08T04:22:19Z")
[Other](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9974349/Two-arrested-after-film-maker-researching-homelessness-documentary-is-found-dead.html) [sources](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/05/radio-presenter-lee-halpin-dead) note that the possibility of hypothermia is what his friends believed may have happened; there wasn’t an official or scientific basis for it. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/11 "2013-04-08T14:52:25Z")
Which seems odd since, not actually BEING homeless, he could have said “fuck this shit” and checked into a hotel. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/12 "2013-04-08T15:11:03Z")
Not sure what happened this poor guy. But in the spirit of fighting ignorance I’d like to point out it doesnt have to be remotely cold as most people think of “cold” for you to sucumb to hypothermia. I live in the deep south for petes sake and I’ve come close at least once. And the temps were in the 50’s. You don’t frack around with hypothermia. The worst part of it is by the time you are starting to get it is also about the time you can no longer think straight. At which point you either better be lucky or have someone with you that is thinking straight and will get on your ass to get things right. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/13 "2013-04-09T15:40:55Z")
"A post-mortem examination of a filmmaker found dead inside a derelict building has proved inconclusive, an inquest has heard. Further tests will now take place on his body, coroner David Mitford said." > **[Lee Halpin death: Post-mortem tests prove inconclusive](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-22080047)** > > A post-mortem examination of a filmmaker found dead inside a derelict building has proved inconclusive, an inquest hears. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmaker-freezes-to-death-making-homeless-documentary/655047/14 "2013-04-09T19:59:44Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > Watched an old movie last evening, Sullivan [something] wherein a director researching a film on the homeless got himself wrongly thrown in prison. Of course in the movie he was redeemed and got fame and the blond. [Sullivan’s Travels.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan's_Travels) The film he was working on was to be called “O Brother Where Art Thou?”