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Two 20-year-olds from Ord, Neb., froze to death in a rural area south of Omaha in January 2005 after calling 911 repeatedly through the night, unable to tell dispatchers where they were, authorities said.

Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornickel were driving back to their Omaha apartment on the night of Jan. 4 when a snowstorm with subzero windchills overtook them, according to news accounts of the case. Their pickup went off a road in rural Sarpy County early on Jan. 5, roughly 23 miles from home. Both left their winter coats in the truck and set out on foot.

Wamsley placed the first of several 911 calls shortly after midnight, telling a dispatcher the couple was lost and looking for their vehicle, authorities said. Over the next few hours the two called back at least five times. Their accounts did not match from one call to the next, at times placing themselves near their own apartment complex, and the descriptions grew stranger as the night went on. Hornickel reported people in unusual clothing taking cars apart and putting the pieces in trees, and the couple said they were surrounded by a crowd, according to the recordings, which were released later.

Dispatchers could not fix the couple's position. Nebraska's 911 network at the time could not pinpoint a cell phone, and the calls bounced among towers spread across Sarpy County, an area of about 250 square miles, according to authorities. In his final call, logged shortly before 5 a.m., Wamsley said he had "just escaped" and asked for someone to come get him, according to accounts of the tapes.

Searchers found Wamsley's snow-covered body on Jan. 6, within about two miles of the truck. Hornickel remained missing through a search by law enforcement and volunteers until Jan. 12, when her body was found at the edge of a sand pit lake. A medical examiner ruled that both had died of hypothermia, according to news reports.

Toxicology tests showed both had methamphetamine in their systems, and investigators attributed the couple's confusion and hallucinations during the calls to the drug, authorities said. Officials later traced the methamphetamine to a mother and son from the Kearney area, who were arrested on drug charges. Authorities released recordings of the 911 calls to the news media on Jan. 21, 2005.