Last week, 11-year-old Jeffrey Williams was found dead in his room at a Best Western hotel in Boone, North Carolina. The cause--carbon monoxide poisoning. Now, according to a horrifying front-page story in this morning's Charlotte Observer, it turns out that the state medical examiner's office had known for a week that Jeffrey's room had CO issues. However, no one told local authorities about it until Jeffrey's death.
A report obtained by the Observer shows the office knew that a June 1 toxicology test detected lethal levels of carbon monoxide in the blood of Shirley Mae Jenkins, 72.
She and husband, Daryl Jenkins, 73, a Longview, Wash., couple, were found dead on April 16 at Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza.
But seven days after the June 1 test found poisonous gas in Shirley Jenkins’ blood, Jeffrey Williams of Rock Hill was found dead in Room 225.
After the boy’s death, authorities announced that both Williams and Daryl Jenkins had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Experts say medical examiners should warn police and fire officials immediately after toxicology tests show someone could have died from carbon monoxide to prevent future deaths.
Ricky Diaz, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said state officials are reviewing how the cases were handled.
According to Diaz, the medical examiner handling the case,
DavidBrent Hall, should have notified the state about the urgency of the matter--and didn't. He also didn't ask state officials to expedite the toxicology tests on the Jenkinses. As a result, Boone police didn't receive the results from the Jenkinses' tests until June 10--two days after Jeffrey died. Those tests showed that the Jenkinses both had CO saturations of over 60 percent. Anything above 50 percent is usually lethal. Hall, one of 400 forensic pathologists who are contracted by the state to perform investigations at $100 per case, resigned late yesterday--no doubt jumping before getting pushed.
Jeffrey's father, Darrell, is hopping mad, and deservedly so. He said it would have only taken "average intelligence" for someone to call local authorities and tell them that room was potentially dangerous.
As hard as it may be to believe, the failure to notify local authorities was one of many fails in this case. According to the Observer, no one from the state medical examiner's office visited the hotel room after the Jenkinses died, and no one asked local firefighters to test the room for CO.
The Observer writeup also reveals that the Jenkinses' deaths might have been entirely preventable as well. State inspectors found that the heater for the hotel's indoor pool had been improperly installed. North Carolina law requires local officials to inspect hotel pool heaters when they're installed. As most of us know, CO is emitted by fuel-burning machinery. I'm getting one of two pictures here--either local building inspectors didn't notice the heater wasn't installed correctly, or hotel officials promised to get it fixed and never got around to it.
At this point, it looks like the only questions here are how big the settlements for the Williams and Jenkins families will be, and who else besides Hall should end up before a judge.
9:12 AM PT: We Won mentions in the comments that Jeffrey's death was actually the third CO incident at that hotel. Three days after the Jenkinses died, 10 girls fell violently sick while attending a sleepover birthday party one floor above the Jenkinses' room with symptoms of CO poisoning. The birthday girl's mom says hotel workers basically stared at her when she warned them about it, and was never told about the Jenkinses' deaths. More here.
9:26 AM PT: Now this has really gotten hideous. We Won reports in the comments that the pool heater was inspected on March 6--ONE MONTH before the Jenkinses died--and found to have serious deficiencies. The Watauga County health inspector wrote in no uncertain terms that this had to be fixed immediately. Apparently the fix never occurred.
9:31 AM PT: The hotel is owned by Appalachian Property Management, a local company. And it turns out they own four other hotels in the area--a Country Inn and Suites, a Sleep Inn, a La Quinta and a Super 8. These franchise agreements need to be yanked, and yanked yesterday.
12:12 PM PT: The Boone Police Department is now asking anyone who stayed in the room the Jenkinses and Williamses rented to call them at (828) 268-6900 or email Sergeant Matt Stevens at matt.stevens at townofboone dot net.