CHICAGO (CBS) — Police and the Lake County Coroner's office were investigating, after a Highland Park couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their home earlier this week.
A Highland Park Fire Department lieutenant found the bodies of his parents – 79-year-old Pasquale Fontanini and 76-year-old Rina Fontanini – in their home Monday morning. Pasquale Fontanini's body was on the first floor, and Rina Fontanini's body was in an upstairs bedroom.
The Lake County Coroner's office said autopsies determined both husband and wife died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Police said investigators believe Pasquale Fontanini heard the home's carbon monoxide detector going off, found the family car's keyless ignition running in the attached garage, and opened the garage door, but the deadly carbon monoxide did not dissipate quickly enough, and the couple was overcome.
Their son tried to perform CPR after finding their bodies, but could not revive them.
Hmmm, you have to wonder if an electrical glitch or other problem caused the car to start by itself....with keyless ignitions you just need to have the "key" close to the car to be able to start it, there's no actual key that has to be inserted to start the engine. Without the key near to the car the engine will not start.
If the key is nearby, however, 5 or 6 feet typically, then the car goes into a "ready" state where the engine can be started with the push-button. The engine starts by a push-button, and it's not hard to imagine an electrical spike or fault causing the car to think that the start button was pushed.
I know if I'm standing over the garage in my house the bluetooth gear in my phone will "see" and link up to the car a floor below below me, and vice-versa. I wouldn't be surprised to find that a keyless ignition key worked at a similar distance.
Ya gotta wonder if something like this happened, as there's no apparent suspicion that this might have been suicide. Maybe the keyfob was close enough to the car to put it into the "ready" state and an electrical fault of some sort started the car.
