11/23/10: Michael Ellis, 22, Portland, OR

Credit: Stephen Claypool, Facebook

Mike Ellis, 22, was last seen in the early morning hours of  Tuesday, November 23, 2010 after being asked to leave the now defunct Club 915 in downtown Portland, Ore. Ellis had been asked to leave the club because he was intoxicated and acting erratically. According to another report, he had removed his shirt.

Ellis's partially clothed body was found later that morning, three or four blocks from the club in a partially frozen water feature north of the Hawthorne bridge.

Temperatures around the time Ellis disappeared had dipped to 18 degrees, and an autopsy revealed that Ellis died from hypothermia.

According to KGW News, "Police said it appeared he had taken off his clothes and got into the water -- actions consistent with hypothermia, in which the brain can fool the body into a need to cool down. It's unclear how much clothing he had been wearing when he left the club."

In May 2011, a $2.5 million lawsuit was filed against Club 915--which lost its liquor license on Jan. 7, 2011 after a series of other violations--and its security company, Top Flyte Security for ejecting Ellis out of the club. The suit contends that Top Flyte Security assaulted Ellis then put him in grave danger by sending him outside without his coat, hat and backpack full of clothes on one of the coldest nights of the year.

Mike Ellis lived at SE Long St in Southeast Portland with his father.

Anyone with information about Ellis should call Detective Chris Traynor at (503) 823-0541.


Case Details
Name/age: Mike Ellis, 22
Residence: SE Long Street, Portland, OR
Last Seen: 11/23/10, Club 915 at SW 2nd Ave. & Taylor St, Portland, OR
Recovered: 11/24/10, water feature north of Hawthorne bridge near Rose Festival building


Sources

Burton, Justin. (2010, November 24). New details emerge in hypothermia death. KGW News. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.kgw.com/home/New-details--110555474.html

Karas, Alyssa. (2010, November 24). Man who died of hypothermia was asked to leave nightclub after taking off his shirt. The Oregonian. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/man_who_died_of_hypothermia_wa.html

Green, Amy. (2011, May 26). Downtown Portland nightclub sued for $2.5 million for allegedly ejecting patron who was later found dead in an icy fountain. The Oregonian. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/05/downtown_portland_nightclub_su.html