Hydrogen sulfide inhalation from car battery killed mother, daughter, medical examiner says

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Medical examiners have determined out how a woman and her daughter died three months inside an SUV on the Turnpike in Osceola County.

Dr. Gary Utz said a car battery leaked toxic hydrogen sulfide into the cabin of the SUV, where Latifa Lincoln and her daughter, Maksmila, assumed they were safe.

“I don’t have another reason for either of them to be dead,” he said, calling the case “unprecedented.”

The substance that hydrogen sulfide becomes in the body was nowhere to be found in the victims’ blood, but Utz said a level of the substance was found in their urine.

The malfunctioning battery might have been nothing more than a nuisance, except in the Porsche Cayenne, the battery isn’t under the hood; it’s under the driver’s seat.

“Talking to the owners and the mechanics we have here, none of them have ever heard of anything like this in regard to a battery,” said Ron Telleysh, manager of Auto Express Finance.

He said Auto Express on Goldenrod Road sold the SUV to Lincoln.

“Nothing like this you ever see, ever,” said Telleysh.

He said the car had a clean record and still had the battery with which it was sold.

He said his whole staff was saddened to learn that the woman and her daughter whom they had gotten to know were dead.

“I hope there are people out there that will take his seriously and find out what happened in this situation,” Telleysh said.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration now has the battery from the SUV for testing.

The staff at the Medical Examiner’s Office said that have never seen a case like this before, and that it’s so rare, drivers should not be worried about the batteries in their cars.

Cox Media Group