SC: bodies of young people who died in a car are released

The Scientific Police of Santa Catarina reported this Tuesday (2) that the bodies of the four victims found inside a BMW car, in the parking lot of the Balneário Camboriú bus station, on the north coast of Santa Catarina, were examined, identified and released to their custody. families. Thiago de Lima Ribeiro (21 years old), Karla Aparecida dos Santos (19 years old), Gustavo Pereira Silveira Elias (24 years old) and teenager Nicolas Kovaleski (16 years old) were found in cardiorespiratory arrest this Monday morning (1st). A fifth person was also in the vehicle but survived. They came from the city of Paracatu, in Minas Gerais. The City Hall even declared official mourning as a result of the tragedy.

So far, the main line of investigation by the Santa Catarina police is that the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, which is a highly toxic gas generated by engine combustion and expelled through the exhaust of automobile vehicles. A mechanical failure could have caused gas to leak through the vehicle's air conditioning system, causing the occupants to become ill. According to investigators, this suspicion is being investigated, as the car underwent mechanical customization to make more noise. There were no signs of violence on the bodies. The investigation was initiated by the Criminal Investigation Division of Balneário Camboriú.

Civil Police Chief Bruno Effori, who was on duty on the day of the incident, reported in press interviews that the young people began to feel sick and unwell, and decided to remain inside the vehicle, with the air conditioning on, unaware of a possible carbon monoxide leak. The gas is colorless and odorless, but highly lethal if inhaled in large quantities or for long periods in closed spaces.

The state's official forensic body also reported that the forensic examinations on the car and the analysis of the examination of the bodies should be completed and presented “in the next few days.”

According to the Fire Department, the first assistance was carried out by teams from the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu), who removed the young people from the car with them already without signs of breathing. For more than 40 minutes, SAMU rescuers and firefighters tried to revive the four victims, without success.