BOONE, N.C., July 7 (UPI) -- Police in North Carolina broadened their investigation of a hotel where three people died from carbon monoxide poisoning to include two other hotels.
Boone Police Department investigators believe a pool heater leaked the deadly gas at the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza hotel in Boone and are also now investigating the Sleep Inn and the Country Inns & Suites, also in Boone, because some employees worked at all three hotels and some equipment was shared among the hotels, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported Saturday.
A Washington state couple, Daryl Dean Jenkins and Shirley Mae Jenkins, died on April 16 and 11-year-old Jeffrey Lee Williams of Rock Hill, N.C., died on June 8, all due to the poisoning. The boy's mother, Jeannie, was hospitalized. All four had stayed in the same room at the Best Western, the Observer reported.
The hotel was closed after the child's death, the Observer said.
The newspaper said it's unclear why no action was taken after a June 1 report to former Watauga County Medical Examiner Dr. Brent Hall showed Shirley Mae Jenkins had a lethal concentration of carbon monoxide in her blood.
The report was finished a week before Jeffrey's death.
Hall resigned his post in June, the newspaper said.
Police are gathering information from the hotels' employees and various contractors who dealt with the pool heater, said Boone Police Capt. Andy LeBeau.
"When we are finished, the investigation will be presented to the district attorney to see if there is any kind of criminal violation that occurred," he said.
