Mysterious Deaths In Boone, NC Hotel Room

That would be room 225 at the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza.

An 11-year-old Rock Hill boy died in a Boone motel over the weekend, just two months after a couple died mysteriously in the same room.

Police said Jeffrey Lee Williams, 11, was found dead in his room at the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza. His mother, Jeannie Williams, 49, was listed in critical condition at a Boone hospital Saturday night, but her condition was not known Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, police said there was no danger to the general public. “The investigation and testing is ongoing,” Sgt. Shane Robbins said in a news release, adding he didn’t expect additional information to be released until Tuesday at the earliest.

Well, they probably didn't die of electrocution, since burns would have been obvious; probably can rule out carbon monoxide poisoning, as a corpse with a bright red face is pretty hard to confuse with any other death than cyanide poisoning. One of the commenters theorizes that the room was used as a meth lab, and there may be something to that. It's also possible that some sort of cleaning chemicals were used on the bedding that affected the sleepers; back when carbon tetrachloride was widely used in dry cleaning, people were cautioned not to dry clean feather pillows/comforters/sleeping bags for fear of lethal fumes. Maybe it's something like that. Or perhaps there is a gas leak into that room through the bathroom ventilator. Hopefully we'll get a follow-up report.

Update: They're reporting carbon monoxide from a gas pool heater.