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Surprise gift has role in tragedy

A BMW presented by a son to his mother is left running in their garage. A guest is dead. She and another are hospitalized.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published January 31, 2006

TAMPA - The black two-door BMW convertible was just what 72-year-old Beverly Loranger wanted to replace her old clunker.

She told her son as much when they saw one out on the road.

Keith Loranger took note, bought the sports car last year and stored it in the garage of their Westchase vacation home. It would be a surprise for his mother, a recently retired schoolteacher from New Hampshire.

"She got down there, opened the garage and there it was," said family friend Andrea Cordano.

On Monday night, authorities determined that the car had leaked carbon monoxide into the Westchase home, killing one man and hospitalizing two women, including Beverly Loranger. It appeared that the BMW had been left running overnight in the garage by accident, a Fire Rescue official said.

"I can't believe it," Cordano said in a phone conversation from New Hampshire.

Keith Loranger got on a late flight from New Hampshire to Florida as soon as he was alerted, Cordano said Monday evening.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office was not releasing the names of the three people in the home, pending notification of next of kin.

But Cordano said the two others were friends of Beverly Loranger's from her neighborhood in Hooksett, N.H. They had recently joined Loranger for a break from the harsh Northeastern winter.

Ray Yeakley, spokesman for Hillsborough Fire Rescue, said it appeared the BMW had been running in the enclosed garage since about 9 p.m. Sunday, when it was parked.

Investigators found no indication that it was left running intentionally, he said.

When rescue officials arrived shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, the car's gas tank was empty. Some of the rooms had carbon monoxide levels 35 times higher than what it would take to set off a carbon monoxide detector.

Yeakley said the house did not have such a detector, and its air handling system had helped distribute the poisonous gas throughout the 2,049-square-foot home.

Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless. Excessive exposure to it can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea and death.

Disoriented by the fumes, one of the women inside 9660 Gretna Green Drive went to a neighbor's house at 4:11 p.m. and called emergency officials to report a man had died in one of the bedrooms, sheriff's officials said.

Beverly Loranger and the second woman were being transferred late Monday from local hospitals to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

One woman was unconscious and the other was semiconscious when emergency officials arrived, said sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Akins.

The sight of county hazardous materials workers swarming the house while deputies, firefighters and other emergency officials waited on the curving street outside left neighbors feeling unsettled and worried for their own safety.

"I'm sure there will be a mad rush to the Home Depot tonight for carbon monoxide detectors," said Jean Keelan, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than five years.

Keelan came to see what had happened after her children, ages 7 and 10, started yelling for her to get off the phone because helicopters were flying overhead. Now, she worried the experience of seeing what had happened would leave her own children too scared to sleep.

Viktor and Sandrinne Stigson-Edstrom, ages 14 and 10, said they were saddened by the news reports. The siblings frequently pass by the house - Viktor as he walks the family dog in the mornings, and Sandrinne as she rides her scooter in the evenings - and wave hello to a man who sits in the driveway with a friendly golden retriever by his side.

Viktor said he had told the man several times that the BMW was his "dream car."

"Work hard and you'll get one," the man replied.

Cordano, who was looking after the Lorangers' golden retriever, Amstel, on Monday, said the man with the dog was more than likely Keith Loranger. The mother and son, both from New Hampshire, reside together in the Westchase home several months out of the year. But Keith likes to give his mother her space when she has friends visiting, Cordano said.

"She's a hot ticket," Cordano said, describing Beverly Loranger as having the energy of a 20-year-old.

As the sun went down Monday evening on a house cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape, Yeakley stood before television news cameras and urged people to purchase quality carbon monoxide detectors.

Windows to the residence were thrown open for air. Blue and white sheets blocked the view of the now-opened front door.

The surprise BMW sat shiny and new in the opened, lighted garage.

--Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 31, 2006, 00:30:20]