Mum tried to save her children in gas tragedy
A mother made a last-ditch bid to turn off a car left running in an internal-access garage before carbon monoxide killed her.
She did not make it, collapsing and dying in the hallway, while her three young children perished from the odourless gas in the lounge.
Cindy Tangipurunga George, 31, daughter Pio Scarlet Jetejura Raukete, 5, and sons Teuruaa Junior George, 3, and Teiyzshwaun Gordon Ricardo Nelder Kruz George, 2, were found dead in a house at Tinwald, Ashburton, on July 2, 2015.
A coroner has ruled all of them died from carbon monoxide poisoning, from a car left running in the attached garage, with the main garage door down and the internal access door ajar.
George’s body was found lying in the hallway, with blood around her nose indicating she fell, the coroner said. The family’s bodies were not discovered for five days.
‘‘The location of Ms George’s body is consistent with a lastminute realisation that the car was still running and an attempt to reach the garage to turn it off ... she may have lost consciousness and collapsed,’’ coroner Marcus Elliott said.
The family were last seen alive on June 27.
George was house-sitting for her ex-partner’s parents at the time. She had been asked to go the house every second day to clear the mailbox and run the car to stop the battery going flat.
The coroner said George was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of her death.
Elliott said the children appeared to have been prepared for a night of sleep, with two lying on a mattress and one lying on a couch with cushions and blankets on or near them.
George, a regular phone user, sent her last text message about 7.47pm on June 27.
One or more of the children may have been asleep when the odourless gas overcame them, the Coroner said.
All four had blood saturated with carbon monoxide to fatal levels – above 50 per cent.
When emergency services entered the home, the Holden Commodore’s engine was not running and the fuel tank was about half full, but the key was in the ignition in the ‘‘on’’ position.
Police evidence indicated the engine would have stopped running once carbon monoxide filled the garage, which was a confined space.
‘‘It is more probable than not that Ms George turned the engine on and left it running on June 27 and that she and the children died on the night of June 27-28,’’ Elliott said.
Homeowner Tom Raukete said he left George instructions to get the mail and open the garage to start the car.
‘‘I told her to run the car for a couple of minutes and then turn it off and then leave.’’
He said George had seen him do this when she previously lived with them.
‘‘I didn’t mention to her anything about ventilation as she had seen that I opened the garage door when I turned the car on to run it.’’
Elliott said the deaths illustrated the importance of ensuring adequate ventilation and closing internal access doors when a car engine was turned on in a garage connected to a house.
‘‘Even a closed internal access door may not prevent carbon monoxide escaping into the house.
‘‘It would be safer not to run a vehicle in a garage for any longer than is necessary to move it in and out,’’ the coroner said.