Carbon Monoxide Fumes Kill Man as His Neighbor Commits Suicide
A man was killed accidentally when his neighbor committed suicide, county coroner’s officials said Tuesday.
Francisco Gutierrez, 33, was asleep in his Alcazar Drive apartment when carbon monoxide fumes from the garage below suffocated him, Deputy Coroner William King said.
Police found Gutierrez’s neighbor dead behind the wheel of a Porsche with the motor running inside the locked garage Saturday at about 11 a.m. A friend found Gutierrez dead in his apartment the next day. King said both died at about 6 a.m. Saturday from inhaling carbon monoxide fumes.
“It’s weird,” King said. “You’ve got to be careful living over a garage, I guess, that you know your neighbor who parks at the garage.”
Gutierrez, a postal carrier who had worked out of the Mission Viejo branch office since 1989, moved to the beach from Costa Mesa about six months ago. The 45-year-old woman who killed herself had moved into the apartment about four months ago.
“He was just an unwitting victim,” King said.
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