CHICAGO — Just before the dangerously cold temperatures set in across the Midwest this week, Michael Belz was occupied with thoughts of his son Gerald, an 18-year-old in his first year at the University of Iowa.

Classes at the university had been canceled. Campus was only a half-hour away from the Belz home in Cedar Rapids. But Gerald had opted to stay put and wait out the cold snap in his dorm.

“At the time, I thought that was the smart move,” Michael Belz said, remembering that his son had trouble getting his truck started the weekend before. “I didn’t want him to get stuck somewhere driving. So he decided he would stay.”

Early Wednesday morning, as the temperatures were plummeting, Gerald Belz was found unconscious outside a campus building, a short walk from his dorm. He died later at a hospital. Investigators believe his death was related to the subzero temperatures that plunged Iowa and all of the Midwest into a miserable and dangerous cold snap this week.