The Crookston man found dead in the cold and snow Monday in a yard in Alvarado, Minn., was remembered and mourned at a funeral service Saturday.
Roy Vernon Gustafson, 50, went missing the evening of Dec. 10 while with two Crookston friends visiting a trailer home in Alvarado, which is about 20 miles north of East Grand Forks. The two men said Gustafson apparently walked away from a vehicle while they were inside the home for a few minutes. The three men had been drinking, said investigators with the Marshall County Sheriff's Office.
His family reported him missing the afternoon of Dec. 11 to Crookston police, but federal, state, county and city law enforcement searchers didn't find him until an Alvarado resident reported seeing his body lying about 200 feet from where he last was seen in a car Dec. 10. It appeared Gustafson froze to death, law enforcement officers said. An autopsy was done in Grand Forks but the results haven't been announced.
The spelling of Gustafson's name was given as "Gustofson" by law enforcement officials during the three days of searching for him.
An obituary in the Crookston Times said Gustafson was born in Crookston and lived and worked in the Reno, Nev., area, where his father had moved, during high school and until 2005 when he returned to the Crookston area. In recent years, ill health kept him from working full-time.
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He was experienced at working on cars, especially his 1988 Pontiac Firebird, his family said.
Survivors include his mother, Barbara Gustafson, Crookston, and his father and stepmother, Vernon and Judy Gustafson, Fernley, Nev.; four sisters and one stepsister and two stepbrothers.
His funeral was Saturday afternoon in First Assembly of God Church in Crookston.
