Another Mysterious Multiple Death

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

This story first broke a few days ago and at the time I guessed CO.

"MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — Seven members of an immigrant family from Honduras whose bodies were found inside a Minnesota home last weekend died of apparently accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, authorities said Wednesday."

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-12-22/authorities-carbon-monoxide-caused-deaths-of-7-in-minnesota

But there's one thing further down in the story that caught my eye.

"Investigators found that a carbon monoxide detector in the garage had been removed and replaced with a smoke-only detector. Monroe said the van had a half-tank of gas and a dead battery. Asked about the significance, the chief said that in cases of intentional carbon monoxide exposure, vehicles are usually found with empty gas tanks."

Why a half tank I wondered. But then I figured maybe the van stalled. They don't say in this article if the key was in the run position or not though.

But let's say it was. If the van was started and left to run why wouldn't it run out of gas before it stalled? Oxygen deprivation? Internal combustion engines need fresh air to run, no? CO replaces air, so wouldn't a running vehicle stall when it can't get air?. Then the battery would run down due to the ignition system and other power draws.


The CO detector being removed/replaced might not be related at all.

 

[Moonbeam]

A wet bird doesn't fly at night.

 

[Jaskalas]

But let's say it was. If the van was started and left to run why wouldn't it run out of gas before it stalled?

A human could have turned it off before succumbing to the fumes.

 

[Zorba]

If it is producing much CO it means there is already not enough oxygen to complete the combustion, so I'd think it'd eventually stall.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Yep, stalled from lack of o2, battery died because the vehicle was 'on' for several hours after. Pretty tight reasoning as far as I can tell.

 

[hal2kilo]

We've got a weird one out here in the Seattle area.

3 dead in Renton apartment: Teen girls, father found | The Seattle Times

Police are investigating what led to the deaths of two teenage girls and their father whose bodies were discovered in a Renton apartment Saturday.

Adriana Gil, 17, and Mariel Gil, 16, were found dead in the living room of their home on the 300 block of Factory Avenue North, according to their mother, who lived separately. The body of their father, 33-year-old Manuel Gil, was found in an upstairs bedroom.

It had been more than a week since a neighbor in the small Renton apartment building had seen anyone come or go from their unit, according to Carlo Papini, a building co-owner who discovered the girls’ bodies.

The mother, Betsy Alvarado, who lives in Everett, had grown concerned after not hearing from her daughters recently. She called Renton police on Friday night and asked them to conduct a welfare check. She and the police knocked on the door, but nobody answered.

“I ended up leaving there that night not knowing anything,” Alvarado, 33, said.

Renton Police Detective Robert Onishi said in an email that an “officer checked the unit, but it was locked and there was nothing alarming visible from outside,” and there was nothing they knew “at that time that would have allowed us forced access to the residence.”

Alvarado said she returned on Saturday around 7 a.m. and peeked through the window. From that view, she said she saw one of her daughters apparently sleeping by the couch. She didn’t want to wake her, so she left. Then around 11 a.m. she got a call from Papini, the landlord: “He said I needed to come there now.”

After learning the police visited the night before, Papini wanted to check on his tenants. On Saturday morning he knocked on their front door, and when he got no answer, he tried the back slider. Hollering Manuel Gil’s name, he entered the apartment.

“I can see them in my mind right now, the sweet little faces of two little teenage girls,” Papini, a grandfather himself, said Sunday as his voice broke. “They were at peace.”

The girls were on the floor wrapped in large blankets, their backs against the couch, he said. Nothing appeared disturbed in the apartment: “It was like they went to sleep, and they never woke up.”

 

[uallas5]

CO poisoning by accidently leaving a keyless vehicle running in a garage with the fob inside isn't as uncommon as people think. My friend lost her mother that way a few months ago. New cars have systems that eliminate that possibility. My company car is a Ford Edge and it will turn itself off after 15 minutes of idling if in Park.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

"MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — A furnace was the source of carbon monoxide that killed seven members of an immigrant family from Honduras living in Minnesota, authorities said Monday.

Police in Moorhead said earlier that blood samples from the victims showed a lethal level of carbon monoxide, but further testing was needed to determine whether the source was the furnace or a van parked in an attached garage. New findings from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office showed that the poison gas could not have come from a combustion engine."

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-01-24/minnesota-police-poison-gas-that-killed-7-came-from-furnace

But the article doesn't explain why.