ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NARROWS
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
A Giles County man's funeral Tuesday was held yards from the spot where he died early Saturday from exposure to subzero temperatures.
Bill Mullins' white house shared a driveway with the Wolf Creek River of Life Ministries Church, a small church Mullins' family had attended for years.
The 46-year-old, who had a history of medical problems, was found around noon Saturday just feet from his front door - and within sight of the church.
In her eulogy, the Rev. Sylvia Hill said she'd known Mullins for two decades. She remembered the time he helped a neighbor move her cows across the creek and how he called his 88-year-old mother "Angel."
Mullins was picked up by a friend Friday night to go to the grocery store, said his sister-in-law, Christine Mullins. Saturday, a family friend found his body buried under several inches of snow.
"She came over to thank him for some flowers he'd sent for her mother's funeral," Christine Mullins said.
"Thank goodness we didn't get the 2 feet of snow they were calling for. We wouldn't have found him."
The medical examiner's office in Roanoke confirmed Tuesday that Mullins died from exposure.
One sister agonized that she spent Friday night in the hospital for an operation and couldn't be in Wolf Creek to check on him. "He wasn't a churchgoing man," Christine Mullins said. "But in the twilight hours, we don't know what happened. He'll face a just God."
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