Carbon monoxide killed family

2009-03-13 17:30

Durban - Carbon monoxide poisoning was responsible for the deaths of the 13 Dingleton family members last year, and not the herbal mixture they had drunk as initially feared, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Superintendent Zandra Wiid said toxicology tests showed that all blood values received showed a carbon monoxide saturation of haemoglobin ranging from 50% to 70%.

"These values are consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning," she said.

The Mazubane family had apparently been carrying out a regular ritual of taking herbal medicine when they began collapsing at their Dingleton home on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast in September last year.

Two male family members survived as they were not at the home at the time.

A neighbour - who had gone to borrow a Bible from the family - found the 13 bodies in the lounge.

The home is situated in an informal settlement that borders the resort town of Paddock.

Found dead were a two-week-old baby, four boys aged between two and seven, a 17-year-old boy, a 21-year-old man, four women in their 30s and two 55-year-olds.

Wiid said these were the grandparents, their children and grandchildren.

The victims had blood dripping from their noses when they were found.

It was initially believed that the 17-year-old, a trainee traditional healer, had administered a mixture that killed them.

Wiid said that the mixture had been ruled out and police are now considering what the source of the carbon monoxide poisoning could have been.

- SAPA