This is the story of a cheap slumlord who refused to repair a heater in his rental and killed an entire family, including four children.
At 3 pm on Jan 14 1990, there is a 911 call for a welfare check on the home of Sophia Gerardo. She just moved into her new home and family is unable to get her on the phone. A police officer arrives and sees a woman and four children all dead bleeding from their eyes and mouths. They have been dead for 3 or 4 days. There is a dead cat on the mantel and several candles beside it, so the cop jumps to the wrong conclusion that this is some kind of satanic cult killing. It’s not.
Lt Joe Kenda is called to the scene and notices right away that the bodies are pink and white, the telltale sign of carbon monoxide poisoning. But it doesn’t click until he almost passes out. Then he evacuates the building and calls the gas company to come and check the home for carbon monoxide. The amount of carbon dioxide being emitted from the heater is lethal, 2300 ppm. So the fire department cuts off the gas and airs out the building with huge fans. Then police begin their investigation.
The dead children are:
- Sophia’s 9 yo son Nash
- Sophia’s 11 yo son Danny
- Sophia’s 13 yo son Mario
- Sophia’s 15 yo nephew Mark Chacon, her sister Frances’s son
The cat was probably sitting on the mantle when it died or it crawled up there to escape the fumes. Next to it are several scented candles, nothing ritualistic. One of the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning are severe abdominal cramps which would explain why Sophia unzipped her pants. She wasn’t raped.
Joe Kenda Tip #9: Carbon monoxide poisoning has a distinctive appearance on the skin–“cherry pink and apple blossom white”, a mottled pink and white coloring.
Police speak with landlord Darrell Atkinson, a retired fireman who lies and claims he has had no problem with the house, no problems with any of the gas appliances, no problem with the heater, and that he only hires licensed repairmen.
Meanwhile, the gas man says the heat exchanger is installed backwards. They can only be installed one way, one direction, but some unlicensed idiot hammered it in the wrong way and just kept hammering until it fit. It is giving off a lethal amount of carbon monoxide, 2300 ppm.
Sophia’s sisters Nellie and Frances have arrived at the house and tell Lt Kenda that this was probably one of Claudia’s two boyfriends, who knew about each other and hated it. So police interview Kevin Cusick, her abusive boyfriend, and Nathan Joyce, her kind lover. They both cry when they hear she and the kids are dead. They both loved her.
Once police have eliminated Kevin and Nathan, they wonder if the landlord was the target or a previous tenant. Atkinson tells them the previous tenants were a young couple, Marvin and Brenda Hogsett. Atkinson evicted them, claiming they weren’t clean enough. He also says Marvin is an HVAC guy, so he’d know how to sabotage the heater.
Police speak with Brenda, who lives in Colorado Springs. The couple split and Marvin lives in Denver now. Brenda tells them that they almost died in that house. They collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning and fortunately her father stopped by and called an ambulance otherwise they would have died. They were taken to the hospital who told them they barely escaped with their lives. She refused to go back to that house.
Police speak to Marvin who confirms Brenda’s story. He says he confronted Atkinson about the heater and Atkinson agreed to replace it, but then refused. Instead, he got a cheap heat exchanger and did it himself. So they moved out.
Police confront 72 yo Darrell Atkinson who’s been lying to the police from the very beginning. He eventually confesses and they arrest him. As they are handcuffing him, he asks Kenda how much his bail will be. Kenda says probably $20,000 cash out the door. So Atkinson opens a coffee can, takes out $20,000, and puts the lid back on. But there is plenty of cash in that can. So why did he kill five people over a $100 heat exchanger?
Atkinson posts bail and goes home. But he still doesn’t understand that he committed murder. He thinks he didn’t do anything wrong.
The next day police are called to his address. He is sitting in his car in a closed garage with the car going. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the exact way he killed his five victims.
Bibliography
Homicide Hunter, Season 2 Episode 8: A Beautiful Shade of Death, air date: Nov 26, 2012.
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