3 Arrested on Charges Linked to 12 Deaths at Tijuana Home

Three people have been arrested on charges connected with the deaths here last week of 12 people during a nightlong religious ceremony and the FBI has been asked to help find two others who participated in the ceremony, Mexican news agencies reported late Monday.

Tijuana state Judicial Police Cmdr. Jaime Sam Fierro told the independent Excelsior news agency that the three suspects, in custody on charges of abandonment, knew that the victims were in dire straits but did nothing to help them. Identities of the three were not immediately released.

The state government of Baja California has asked the FBI to help identify and find two U.S. citizens who reportedly were at the religious ceremony, the official news agency Notimex said.

Meanwhile, blood tests performed on three of the victims validated earlier reports that they were asphyxiated from carbon monoxide poisoning, authorities said.

The 12 people died Thursday in a four-room house--its doors and windows shut tight--illuminated by a butane-gas lantern that officials said consumed all oxygen. Three people remain in a coma and may have irreversible brain damage, according to chemist Miguel Cuahutemoc Pallarez Diaz of the coroner’s office here.

Alfredo Osuna Hernandez, 22, and his daughter, 8-month-old Ana Karen Osuna, were released from a local hospital Monday. The father was questioned by police, but it was not known if he was one of the people arrested.

The toxicology tests, conducted by the San Diego County medical examiner’s office and forwarded to Mexican officials here, also show that a fruit punch consumed by worshipers and initially thought to be poisoned contained a small amount of alcohol.

The tests performed on the three victims--chosen because their ages range from young to old constituted a representative sample of the dead--show an abnormally high level of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said. One young girl showed a 65.8% blood level; a 20-year-old woman showed 61.4%, and a woman over 50 showed 73.1%. An average smoker would have less than 10% carbon monoxide. Someone with 50% to 60% of carbon monoxide would be susceptible to vomiting and strong headaches, officials said. Between 60% and 70% is known to cause coma or death.