A man who was a patient at St. Elizabeths hospital in Southeast D.C. was found dead in the snow Thursday.

A police spokesperson told the Post the man’s body was found “shortly before 12:45 p.m. in the 2400 block of Shannon Place SE., two blocks from the Anacostia Metro station.”

Phyllis Jones, chief of staff for the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health, told DCist 59-year-old Daniel Ellis was reported missing from the city’s hospital for people with serious and persistent mental illness on February 9. Since 1985, Ellis had been admitted to St. Elizabeths multiple times. Jones described him as a “very sick man.” He was currently under a civil commitment.

Ellis left the hospital unauthorized. If he would have requested to leave St. Elizabeths, there would have been a 48-hour process where attempts would have been made to persuade him to stay, Jones said. He would have been allowed to leave against medical advice after medication was arranged.

An internal review is ongoing to ensure that all procedures were followed and to see if any improvements need to be made, Jones said.

Mayor Vincent Gray discussed the death on CNN Thursday evening.

“This apparently was — and I’m still learning more about this myself — this apparently was a man who had been a patient in St. Elizabeths, which is our mental health hospital,” Gray said. “He apparently had wandered away from there several days ago, and we are still obviously, learning more about this. And we will learn more about it in the days ahead. But again, we’ll find out what happened, why he was away from the hospital and how he wound up in these conditions.”