Juneau student at Michigan college who died of hypothermia was intoxicated; family ponders lawsuit
- Mark Sabbatini
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Lucas Mattson, 19, attended a fraternity party in January before he was reported missing and found 20 hours later in sub-freezing weather; autopsy finds alcohol a factor in his death
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A 19-year-old Juneau resident attending a Michigan college who froze to death after leaving a fraternity party in January was intoxicated and his family is considering legal action, according to their attorney and published reports.
Lucas Mattson, an engineering student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was last seen in the early morning hours of Jan. 23 after leaving a Delta Chi fraternity party and found dead off campus at midday on Jan. 24. An autopsy released this week states he died of hypothermia, with acute ethanol intoxication a contributing cause due to a blood alcohol level of 0.156, The Michigan Daily reported Tuesday.
Mattson was found a few blocks from the fraternity house wearing a short-sleeve shirt and pants. Temperatures during a 20-hour search after he was reported missing ranged from 15 degrees Fahrenheit to below zero, according to The Detroit News.
Bobby Raitt, an attorney representing the Mattson family, told the Juneau Independent on Wednesday the family is waiting to see if the county attorney’s office in Ann Arbor files criminal charges in the matter before filing civil litigation. He said the Ann Arbor Police Department provided its findings to prosecutors Tuesday, so it may be weeks before their decision is known.
But civil litigiation is likely — Raitt sent letters Jan. 31 to the fraternity and university demanding they preserve all evidence related to the case.
"We're certainly going to file against the national fraternity and the local fraternity," Raitt said. "We're seriously going to file against the (fraternity) brothers that were involved in any way. In other words, the individuals that were in the fraternity, that lived in the fraternity, that attended the party, that provided him with the liquor, that didn't provide him with a safety, all those things."
Michigan has a social host law that makes it illegal to knowingly serve or allow people under 21 to consume alcohol or controlled substances on the host’s property.
Raitts said the university has governmental immunity protecting it from civil liability "unless we can show they were grossly negligent as to this fraternity and the activities of the fraternity." His letter to the university seeks, among other things, “any and all documents or media related to your attempts to prevent fraternities or sororities from serving alcohol to minors; or remedies taken by either the campus directly or directed from the national chapter of Delta Chi.”
An interim suspension of Delta Chi at the university, including all of its chapter activities, by the fraternity’s national headquarters has been in effect since Jan. 25, according to a Fraternity and Sorority Life webpage at the University of Michigan’s website.
Domenico Grasso, the university’s president, issued a statement Jan. 26 stating a vice president at the school would be reviewing the circumstances surrounding Mattson’s death.
"We want to better understand what transpired and identify possible steps to help prevent similar tragedies in the future," Grasso wrote.
An online obituary published by Mattson’s parents states he was a self-taught musician beginning at the age of 4 and a champion high school tennis player, among many other interests.
"Lucas was a National Honor Society member who earned an academic scholarship to attend the University of Michigan studying civil engineering," the obituary states. "He was on track to graduate a year early. He had just earned an internship at a civil engineering firm in Juneau, Alaska which he planned to work at during Summer 2026."
A GoFundMe set up to aid the family by an aunt of Mattson’s has raised more than $76,000 as of Wednesday.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
