Fairbanks, AK-
Tim Mowry / tmowry@newsminer.com | Posted: Thursday, December 26, 2013 6:36 pm
FAIRBANKS A Fairbanks man was found dead in a vehicle on 23rd Avenue early Sunday afternoon, the apparent victim of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fairbanks police identified the man as Ryan Tufford, 29. Officers found several gas heaters in the vehicle, a Subaru Forester, and the inside of the car smelled of propane, Lt. Jim Geier said. It appeared Tufford was living in the vehicle, he said.
“He had a propane bottle in there that was leaking,” Geier said. “He had one of those bulk 20-pound tanks with a heater on top. The heater was off but the valve on the propane tank was on.”
Fairbanks police are treating Tufford’s death as an accident, Geier said. Tufford’s body was sent to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Fairbanks police received a report at 12:15 p.m. Sunday of a man found dead in a vehicle with a woman running from the scene. Officers responded and found Tufford dead in the vehicle.
They later talked to the distraught woman who was seen running away from the vehicle. The woman told police she found Tufford, who was her boyfriend, dead in the vehicle earlier that day. The woman told police she ran away because she had warrants out for her arrest.