‘She was an angel’: Omaha encampment mourns ‘sister’ who died in extreme cold without housing

By Aaron Hegarty

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — To an Omaha man who goes by “Bulldog,” Krysta “Krissy” Gallagher-McMillan was like a sister. He says he called her “lil sis.”

“She was just like one of my family,” he said. “She was an angel.”

They each stayed at an encampment west of Levi Carter Park in Omaha.

He said they were prepared to handle the extreme cold with heaters and fire, including hand sanitizer they burn in cans, tents and thermal blankets.

But a week ago Sunday morning, Gallagher-McMillan was found dead inside her tent.

Bulldog said it’s a big loss in the community.

“You had a problem, she tried to solve it,” he said. “She had problems, but she never laid it on anybody else. She tried to help other people.”

Jill Lynch-Sosa, the executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Omaha, also says she saw that helping nature firsthand.

Gallagher-McMillan “is someone that sees herself as a protector of others,” Lynch-Sosa told KETV on the phone. “She would introduce us to people and our connections and our relationships really grew with the whole community in that area.”

She said Gallagher-McMillan donated lots of her time at the Society’s Holy Family Center.

Lynch-Sosa and Bulldog each said Gallagher-McMillan had seizures that could have contributed to her death.

Gallagher-McMillan had tried to enter a shelter, they said, but wasn’t willing to give up her service dog, they said.

“She woudn’t go in the shelter without the dog,” Bulldog said.

He said Chewy was a service dog.

“When she had a seizure, the dog would go nuts,” Bulldog said.

Another member of the same encampment is known as “Mississippi.”

In January, Mississippi said frostbite cost him both of his legs. They were surgically removed in early February.

“She’s just a one of a kind,” he told KETV at his rehab facility. ” There won’t be nobody else like her.”

Both Bulldog and Mississippi said the deaths of people like Gallagher-McMillan show the need for more and better help for those without housing.

“A lot of people would be alive right now if they do what they are supposed to do,” Mississippi said. “Do the right thing.”

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