Alliance, OH – Alliance police continue to investigate the discovery of a body in a car parked on a city street.
According to Detective Lt. John Jenkins, Richard Kibler, 38, of 148 Selby St., was discovered deceased in his station wagon shortly after 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, after dispatchers received a call about a medical emergency.
Preliminary indications are that Kibler may have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, possibly from two barbecue-type grills in the back of his vehicle.
After grilling on the porch of his parents’ porch overnight, Jenkins said it is believed Kibler didn’t dump the hot ashes out of the grills prior to placing them in the station wagon. A laptop was open and next to him in the car, Jenkins said.
Though admittedly a somewhat unusual cause of death, the Alliance police detective said that apparently it isn’t as farfetched as one thinks. A Stark County coroner investigator, who had responded to the scene and taken the body back to their office, said that his office sees at least two of these type of deaths annually.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warns that each year approximately 25 people die and hundreds more suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning when they burn charcoal in enclosed areas, such as their homes, in campers or vans, or in tents. Sometimes coals can rekindle within 72 hours after appearing to be cold, producing carbon monoxide that can reach fatal concentrations of 500 parts per million in less than an hour, according to the Iowa State University Extension.
Since the body was taken from the scene, Jenkins said that there probably will be an autopsy.
Police have removed the vehicle from the 100 block of Selby Street and moved it to an interior location for processing.
Reports show that the call was placed by a home health care aide who had arrived at the parents’ residence Wednesday morning to assist them with health needs.
Kibler had recently moved to Alliance, where he lived with his parents, from Maine, Jenkins concluded.