Carbon monoxide deaths
Mother, daughter
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Autopsies are expected to show that an 81-year-old Willowbrook woman and her daughter died in their sleep due to carbon monoxide poisoning after using a natural gas-fired oven to heat their home, authorities stated.
Doris Jean Hopson, 81, and Yvonne Hopson, 62, were found dead Saturday afternoon in their home in the 2200 block of El Segundo Boulevard, sheriff's deputies said.
A granddaughter went to check on the pair after being unable to raise them by telephone. She found the oven open, smelled gas, then got out and called authorities, deputies said.
"It appears as though the victims had opened the oven door and turned the oven on in order to heat their residence,'' sheriff's Lt. Michael Thatcher said.
County firefighters confirmed "extremely high'' levels of carbon monoxide in the home, he said.
Carbon monoxide, which is odorless and colorless, is the product of incomplete combustion, usually because most of the available oxygen has been burned. When inhaled, it replaces oxygen in the blood stream and eventually causes death.
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