It took three 911 calls before police got to frozen body

In late January it took three calls over two days to Detroit authorities before they recovered the body of a man frozen in ice in the elevator shaft of a vacant warehouse.

A reporter for The Detroit News said they got a tip and found the body in a former Detroit Public Schools warehouse. The reporter called 911 and told an operator about the body. A man returned the call to the newsroom about 20 minutes later and said the body would be retrieved.

But the next day, the body was still trapped in the ice. The reporter made two more calls to 911, one of which was disconnected. A fire department employee arranged to meet the reporter and to get the body.

Authorities used saws to extricate the body. Investigators think the body was there for several months. It was taken to the Wayne County medical examiner's office. The man's name and the cause of his death weren't known.

The warehouse once was the Detroit schools' main storehouse for books and supplies. A 1987 fire caused extensive damage. It also once was part of Detroit's main post office.(info from The Associated Press)