Deaths of Twin Toddlers Shake Foothill Towns : Tragedy: Neighbors say they do not suspect foul play and that the children were well cared for. Tests are trying to determine if carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause.

From a distance, Bill Wobbe says, people are probably thinking the worst about what happened to Ashley and Brandy Montgomery, twin toddlers found dead in their cribs last week.

“There’s been a rash of child abuse and murders, and everybody on the outside thinks this was another one of those,” said Wobbe, a retired property manager and a neighbor of the 16-month-old girls.

But Wobbe and many others who live on the rugged ridges above the Feather River Canyon outside Sacramento do not suspect that the Montgomery twins died at the hands of another. They say the family is peaceful and friendly, and the parents hard-working members of the community. They say the children were well cared for.

Even the deputy sheriff investigating the deaths, although open to any possibility, says he believes that the fraternal twins died of a natural or accidental cause--perhaps carbon monoxide poisoning from a wood-burning stove.

“I haven’t seen any signs of foul play,” said Butte County sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Burdine.

The mysterious tragedy has shaken the residents of the several tiny towns that dot these picturesque, pine-covered foothills, where people pretty much let their neighbors be, except when trouble hits.

“When something happens, we all know, we’re all concerned, we all want to help,” said Pat Stephens, a clerk at Yankee Hill Video, the local movie rental store. “This is really tough on the community.”

The twins’ mother and father--Sandra Dodge and Anthony Montgomery--would not speak to a reporter about the deaths.

“We don’t want to talk to anybody,” Montgomery said from behind a screen door of their three-bedroom blue and white modular home on a wooded hillside near California 70. A baby stroller sat on the porch. “It’s been real hard on the family.”

Dodge, 31, the mother of six other children, told sheriff’s detectives that she checked on the twins about 7 a.m. Monday, found them sleeping, then tended to their siblings, ages 3, 5 and 8. Another set of twins, who are 10 years old, live nearby with their grandmother, while Dodge’s oldest child lives with his father, Dodge’s first husband, in Visalia.

Although neighbors say Dodge told them she checked on the little girls several times during the morning, Burdine said she told him that the next time she checked after 7 a.m. was noon, when she found them dead. The twins’ father, off work for the day, was panning for gold in a nearby creek with his father-in-law.

Dodge first called her sister, then summoned authorities by dialing 911 at 12:46 p.m., officials said.

Investigators found nothing suspicious at the house, which Burdine described as clean--especially for being home to so many children--and “in good shape.”

There was a propane heater in the children’s room that had not been used in 11 months and, although it was broken, it showed no signs of leaks. The room also held a small, portable electric heater.

It is possible, Burdine said, that the family’s wood stove, burning low overnight in the living room, emitted carbon monoxide fumes that found their way into the twins’ bedroom. Air samples, however, detected no unsafe levels of the gas. Blood and tissue tests under way at a Sacramento laboratory could show whether such poisoning could have been a cause of death. Early results could come this week.

“We are not ruling anything out,” said Burdine, who also serves as the county’s chief deputy coroner. “We are looking for a cause and manner of death.”

If nothing turns up, Burdine said, experts in sudden infant death syndrome will be asked to investigate. SIDS is not a disease but rather a classification given to the deaths of young children when no other reason can be found.

Born about two months prematurely, the twins weighed less than three pounds at birth. They spent several weeks at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento before being released to their family’s home more than a year ago. Although they were less developed than other children their age, the girls were not suffering from any chronic health problems, Burdine said.

Dr. Alfred Steinschneider, president of the Atlanta-based American SIDS Institute, said 98% of SIDS deaths occur in the first 12 months of life but added that there have been rare cases of twins dying simultaneously for unexplained causes.

“Can it happen? Absolutely,” he said. “It can be an unexplained death. It can be natural. But they should look--aggressively, vigorously and carefully.”

Word of the deaths spread quickly through the community, a collection of enclaves with names such as Concow, Pinkston Canyon and Jarbo Gap that is home to about 5,000 people, many of whom commute to jobs in Oroville and Chico. Many of the homes look down upon the majestic Feather River Canyon, where Pacific Gas & Electric has power plants at several dams.

This is the sort of place where community potlucks and Swiss steak dinners bring people to the local Grange Hall. Although it is a friendly community, the people primarily keep to themselves.

But when crisis strikes, such as the flood of 1986, the blizzard of 1990 or the big wildfire that destroyed several homes in 1993, people pull together. The Wobbes, the family’s nearest neighbors, say they have fielded many calls with offers of help, though so far there is nothing anyone can do.

“This is a tragedy,” Wobbe said. “These babies were beautiful. They were the kind of babies you’d take a picture of to put on a jar of baby food.”