Last week, in South Carolina, two elderly people were discovered dead in their bedroom during a wellness check. The police reported that the home’s heater was extremely hot, reaching 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The heat was so intense that the bodies of the victims, 84-year-old Joan Littlejohn and 82-year-old Glennwood Fowler, had temperatures exceeding 106 degrees.
The police were prompted to check on the couple on Jan. 6 when their family hadn’t heard from them in three days. To enter the home, officers had to go through the bedroom window, where they found the elderly pair deceased in their bed. There were no signs of a struggle or foul play.
The responding officer noted the extremely hot temperature inside the residence upon entering. When medics checked the victims’ body temperatures, they were both over 106 degrees Fahrenheit – higher than the normal range of 97 to 99 degrees.
According to the Mayo Clinic, if the core body temperature goes beyond 104 degrees, individuals require immediate cooling and urgent medical attention.
Upon the fire department’s arrival, they discovered that the interior of the house had exceeded 120 degrees, even after opening the residence to the cold weather for about 20 minutes, as mentioned in the police report.
“They then checked the basement of the residence where the heater and hot water heater were located,” as per the police report. “One firefighter stated the heater was so hot it looked as if the basement was currently on fire.”
After turning off the heater, they discovered that its temperature was over 1,000 degrees.
The Spartanburg Coroner, Rusty Clevenger, expressed worry about the high temperature in the house. However, he assured that no foul play was suspected. The police found that carbon dioxide levels were not a concern, and the coroner stated that the investigation would continue.
When the responding officer talked to the victims’ family, they mentioned that both the hot water heater and heater were not working, causing the house to become too cold on the last day the family saw the pair. In an attempt to fix the issue, family members tried adjusting the hot water heater and then left the home.
