SANTA FE – The family of a 92-year-old woman who froze to death in Santa Fe has filed a lawsuit saying Santa Fe police did not try hard enough to find her.

A lawyer for Antonia Garcia’s family said last week the mother of six lived in the nearby Villa Alegre Apartments, and her family believes she may have gotten lost while on her way to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in March 2019, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

The wrongful death complaint filed in state District Court says a neighbor, Angela Chavez, called police around 11:25 p.m. March 19 to say that when she was leaving her home around 10:45 p.m. she saw an elderly woman leaning against a metal post. But after Chavez turned her car around to talk to the woman, she couldn’t find her.

Chavez told police that when she got home, a while later another neighbor called and told her an elderly woman had been knocking on doors in the apartment complex and asking for directions.

The lawsuit says the information Chavez provided the dispatcher should have alerted the Santa Fe Police Department that the woman was a “missing person” or an “endangered person.” But court documents say the dispatcher and police officers treated the call as “a low priority call.”

The lawsuit says temperature fell to 23 degrees that night. According to the lawsuit, Garcia’s body was found the next morning “stiff and cold in the fetal position” by an employee of a ristra stand.

Garcia died of hypothermia and exposure.

The family is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and legal fees.

A city spokeswoman declined to comment on the pending litigation.