A TEENAGER who left a school disco to walk three miles home across snow-covered fields has been found dead, the second young person apparently killed by exposure in the same county in less than a week.

The body of John Winter, 15, was discovered by a search party of family and friends near the isolated hamlet of Kinninvie in Co Durham at 3pm on Saturday, around 12 hours after he was last seen leaving the party wearing only a T-shirt and jeans.

He had managed to cover less than half a mile when he is thought to have been overcome by the freezing temperatures and collapsed.

The teenager, who lived in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, died less than 20 miles from Brandon, where Shelley Whitfield, a 21-year-old nurse, was also killed by apparent hypothermia yards from her home on Wednesday.

John, who attended Teesdale Comprehensive School, was a promising footballer who had a trial with Leeds United, had been drinking alcohol at the party.

Police are now talking to the 100 young people aged between 15 and 19 who attended the disco, organised by fellow pupils at Teesdale Comprehensive School, to try to piece together his last movements.

He had been dropped off at the disco in a community centre in the village in rural west Durham by his uncle on Friday night. Amanda Winter, his mother, raised the alarm on Saturday when he failed to return home.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr James Sunter, a Home Office pathologist, proved inconclusive. Samples have been sent to a forensic laboratory for further analysis.

Detective Inspector Paul Harker, of Durham Police, said there was nothing about the teenager’s sudden death to suggest it was suspicious.

He said: “There were no injuries on the body other than a few scratches which were consistent with someone having gone off across country and scrambling over walls and through barbed wire in the dark. The area where he was found is bleak, open uphill farmland and when we were out there last night it was absolutely freezing.”

Inspector Harker added: “Given the amount of clothing that John was wearing and the severity of the weather conditions, I cannot rule out the possibility that he died of hypothermia.”

Geoffrey Ainsley, who lives with the teenager’s father Stephen in the Mickleton area of Barnard Castle, said the family was too upset to comment.

Miss Whitfield had spent an afternoon shopping and in a pub with a friend before going for an early evening meal on Tuesday.

She is thought to have either caught a bus or walked from Durham city centre to her home on the outskirts.

The last sighting of her alive was on CCTV at a bus station at 5.50pm. Her body was later discovered by a man walking his dog. Miss Whitfield was an auxiliary nurse at the University Hospital of North Durham.

Tributes were paid during the week in Scotland to another victim of the seasonal conditions.

Peter Strang, 10, from Torphins, Aberdeenshire was crushed to death last Saturday by a giant snowball that he made with his friends. Police described his death as a tragic accident.

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