19-year-old’s body found after search

RENO - The search for a missing 19-year-old California woman who disappeared on New Year's Eve at Lake Tahoe ended Friday when her body was found behind a snow bank about a mile from the site of a music festival she attended that night, authorities said.

Alyssa Byrne of Petaluma may have tried to walk three miles in freezing weather to the hotel where she was staying and became disoriented or lost, Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell said. Her body was found along a road.

The cause of death has not yet been determined, but neither foul play nor suicide is suspected, he said. Howell noted other concert-goers decided to walk back to a hotel in Stateline, a tourist destination on Lake Tahoe's south shore, because of long lines for shuttle buses.

Nighttime temperatures plunged to zero in the area in the past week, with daytime highs still well below freezing.

The autopsy also will determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, he said.

Byrne was in town with friends over the holiday to attend the SnowGlobe Music Festival .