INDIANA, Pa. (AP) - Carbon monoxide is to blame for the deaths of a couple and the woman’s 9-year-old daughter, who were found along with two dogs in the rear bedroom of a western Pennsylvania trailer home after an early morning fire, officials said Monday.
Indiana County coroner Jerry Overman Jr. said carbon monoxide poisoning killed Shawn Marsh, 28, Nickole Novak, 27, and Gabbriella Novak, 9.
Firefighters with the Indiana Fire Association were called at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday to the blaze in White Township, about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh.
“The neighbors all sort of agreed that they were awakened by a loud explosion,” First Assistant Chief Paul Koons told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Novak’s stepfather, Rich Morrill of Butler, said two other young children were staying with relatives and weren’t home at the time of the fire.
“They were both good parents,” he said.
Neighbors said Nickole Novak had recently started work at a pharmacy and was teaching her special-needs daughter sign language. Marsh, her husband-to-be, had a tree-service business. Gabbrielle liked to draw, play video games and watch cartoons, Rich Morrill said.
“She was a really sweet little girl,” neighbor and friend Amanda Rearick said. “(Novak) was really close with Gabby.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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