Woman dead, man hospitalized after apparent carbon monoxide poisoning
HARTFORD, Mich. (WOOD) — A woman died and a man was hospitalized due to apparent carbon monoxide poisoning after being found in their running car in Hartford, police say.
The car was discovered parked at the Hartford Council for Recreation baseball field on Lincoln Street near E. East Street around 8:20 a.m. Wednesday. Hartford Police Department Lt. James Ivy said an officer stopped there to fill out some paperwork and noticed the car.
“This morning one of our officers was on patrol,” said Ivy. “He noticed a car backed up against the fence, running.”
When the officer went to check it out, he found the car running with two people and two dogs inside. They didn’t move when he tried to get their attention. The doors were locked.
“We made entry into the vehicle by breaking the window because no one was responding. We pulled them out, began CPR on the female. The male, who was seizing at the time, started coming to after we pulled him out of the car,” Ivy said.
The 19-year-old woman died at the scene.
The 20-year-old man regained consciousness when they pulled him from the car. He appeared to suffer a seizure and was rushed to local hospital. He was later airlifted to one in Grand Rapids.
The dogs also died.
Police believe it’s a case of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
“We were informed that they had car issues with a muffler, so that’s eventually what lead to the carbon monoxide leaking inside of the vehicle while they were sitting there,” Ivy said. “It had just so had to happen to them out in the open because they had an exhaust leak in the vehicle.”
They say the man and woman, whose names were not released later Wednesday, were from the Hartford area but didn’t have a permanent place to stay. Officers had prior contact with the vehicle.
“From our best guess, they didn’t have a permanent place to live. So, they were kind of transit, moving from place to place. It had just to happened to be the place they chose last night,” Ivy said.
— News 8’s Taylor Morris contributed to this report.
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