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Couple found dead in parked minivan

It appears that the teenagers were killed by carbon monoxide fumes. The van was parked at an apartment complex, and sheets were draped around the windows.

By EMILY NIPPS and ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published October 22, 2005

TAMPA - Jason Epps, 18, and Jenna Lake, 19, had been dating for several months. They went to high school prom together in the spring.

On Friday, they died together.

Epps and Lake were discovered dead Friday afternoon inside a blue Dodge Caravan. The cause of death is still under investigation, but it appeared the couple had fallen asleep and were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes that seeped into the van as the engine ran.

Residents at Lincoln Oaks Apartments thought it strange that the van was parked in the lot all night with sheets draped around the inside windows. It seemed even more strange that the van's engine was running for hours.

After Lincoln Oaks maintenance worker Edwin Silva peered inside the van around noon Friday, he called the police. But it was too late. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies broke a window, unlocked the van and found the dead couple.

"It appeared as if they'd been in there for some time," sheriff's Detective John King said. There was no indication of foul play, he said.

Lake lived at 17815 Willow Lake Drive, Odessa, authorities said. Epps lived at 4924 Rockledge Circle, Tampa.

Apartment resident Michelle Loring, 23, said she saw the van at about 8 a.m. Friday parked next to a trash bin inside the apartment complex, which is at 11500 N Dale Mabry Highway, north of Fletcher Avenue in the Carrollwood area. The van was running, so she knocked on a window.

"I thought it was weird because the windows were all foggy and you could tell the AC was running," Loring said. "I could tell there were people laying in there but I didn't get a response."

Another Lincoln Oaks resident, 22-year-old Jackson Anderson, said he was in and out of the complex all night and morning because he works the night shift for FedEx. At least twice during the night, he parked next to the running van.

"I saw the sheet. . . . I couldn't see anyone, but the radio was illuminated and you could smell something, almost like burning fuel coming out of the exhaust," Anderson said.

After investigators arrived in the early afternoon, they taped off the area surrounding the van as several Lincoln Oaks neighbors watched. The van, which appeared to be at least five years old, was decorated with stickers for DVS Shoe Co. and Alien Workshop, both retail shops for skateboarders. When the back door of the van was lifted, several blankets and pillows could be seen piled in the back.

The bodies, both clothed, were pulled from the van and placed on the ground while a medical examiner took photographs. The woman appeared to be wearing pajamas.

"He was very outgoing, very friendly," Cooper said of her grandson. "Everybody liked him."

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 11:10:39]