5 dead in apparent carbon monoxide poisoning incident in northern Utah

RICHMOND, Utah (KSL) — Five people were discovered dead in an apparent carbon monoxide poisoning incident on Saturday afternoon.

Rick Pool said his neighbors knocked on his door early Saturday morning because their fire alarms were going off.

Pool has lived at the apartment complex for nearly a decade, and his neighbors had been there a couple of years. Though he didn’t know them well, Pool said they were kind.

Later in the day, Pool knocked on their door to check on them. When no one answered, Pool walked in and found five people dead. He then called 911.

“I didn’t ever dream something like that would happen here,” Pool said.

When deputies arrived around noon, they found the house filled with carbon monoxide and the alarms still on.

Cache County Sheriff Chad Jensen said they had to wait for the fire department to clear the house before they could begin their investigation.

“It was high enough that it was off their reader,” Jensen said. “Higher than what their reader could read.”

Jensen confirmed five in the home were dead: a 43-year-old man, found in the garage next to a car that was still turned on, a 16-year-old and 11-year-old boys, a 12-year-old and 5-year-old girls.

“It’s tragic, and it’s horrible,” Jensen said.

Pool was taken to the hospital due to high levels of carbon monoxide and was later released.

The home, Jensen said, was rented by two brothers living together with their families.

Deputies have been in touch with others who lived in the house and are planning to do more interviews with family members and their employers.

Jensen said they’ve towed the car from the garage to the sheriff’s complex. Deputies will run tests, hoping to find out how the car emitted enough CO2 to fill the apartment and checking for any malfunction.

The investigation is still ongoing, but Jensen believes this was an accident.

“We want closure in this case, but we want to be thorough in the investigation that we do,” Jensen said.

Contributing: Alex Tumalip