Omaha, NE - A tragic end to a long search.  Search crews found the body of missing 20-year-old Jeff Julian.  He disappeared February 5th and was found Monday, a couple miles South of Fremont.  Julian's body was in a muddy field, not far from his wrecked car.  Autopsy results show he died from hypothermia. 

Dr. Jeffrey Snyder works in the ER at Mercy Hospital.  He tells Action 3 News hypothermia is nothing to take lightly.  Especially on a night like the night Julian disappeared.  Temperatures dipped below freezing. 

Dr. Jeffrey Snyder:  "20 degrees isn't considered super cold, but if you're not prepared for that or if you're wet at all then you're going to get colder faster."

It doesn't take much.  The average body temperature is 98.6 degrees.  At 95 degrees, less than a 4 degree difference, you start to shiver.  That's the first sign of hypothermia.  At 86 degrees you get confused and may even start to think you're warming up. 

That's what authorities think happened to Julian.  They found his clothes laying next to his body.  He had taken them off. 

Dr. Jeffrey Snyder:  "If you're cold and you're shivering and all the sudden you start to be more comfortable with it, it might not be that you're warming up.  It might be that you're too cold to know that you're cold."

While part of the mystery is solved, the pain still lingers.  The family is waiting for results from a toxicology test.  That could help explain why he wandered into the field.  It could take two or three days to get those results.

Reported by Kerri Stowell, kstowell@action3news.com.