December 29, 1998

Gas kills owner at dry-cleaning shop

       The operator of a White River Township dry cleaning shop was dead inside the store Christmas Day after he failed to attend a family holiday celebration.  Michael Patrick Moran, 35, apparently lived in his business, Charlie‘s Dry Cleaners, located in a strip mall at State Road 135 and Valley Road. Johnson Coroner Charles Shufflebarger said Moran died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Detective Duane Burgess, spokesman for the Johnson County Sheriff‘s Department, said deputies were called to the shop by the victim‘s father, Theodore F. Moran, shortly after 11 p.m. Friday.  “They called us because he failed to show up on time,” Burgess said. Burgess said the father also called a locksmith as he left Indianapolis to come to the shop.  Deputies pounded on the front and rear doors several times, trying to see if Moran was inside. When the locksmith arrived and opened the door, the odor of natural gas poured out of the shop.  Deputies called the White River Township Fire Department. Firefighters donned masks and air tanks to enter the shop, and found Moran’s dog near the front of the shop, lying dead on the floor. Moran was discovered on the floor near the back of the shop.  Lt. Casey Arkins of the White River department said the gas was strongest in the first six or seven suites, just south of Smith Valley Road. Firefighters opened the front and rear doors of the businesses.  Sunday, a bouquet of roses and carnations was behind the aluminum door handle on the front of Moran’s shop. The attached card said, “We will miss you, Dee and all the girls at Country Sun.” Dee’s Country Sun Hair and Nail Design is next door.  Another neighbor, Dr. Wei Ming Cheng, who with his wife owns the China House Restaurant, said he was saddened by Moran’s death.  “He was too young,” Cheng said. Shufflebarger said several agencies are investigating the case, including the fire department, sheriff’s department and the health department.  The coroner said carbon monoxide, a deadly, odorless gas, results from incomplete combustion. “From a safety standpoint, the issue is to find the source of the carbon monoxide,” Shufflebarger said.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

  
(Click on a thumbnail to enlarge photo)
 
 

---