Three teenagers were found dead in a car in Kosciusko County, Sunday afternoon, said Indiana State Police. The cause is believed to be carbon monoxide poisoning.
“They were all together. They’re from the Amish community,” said State Police Sgt. Ted Bohner, the public information officer for the State Police post in Bremen. “There was a gathering the night prior. They were all friends and all knew each other.”
Troopers got a call about three teenagers who were unresponsive in a car in a rural area north of Etna Green, which is half way between Plymouth and Warsaw. When they arrived just after 3 p.m., the two troopers found the three teenagers dead inside a 2008 Ford Fusion.
Inside the car were Robert Bontrager 18, of Rome City, Ind., in the driver’s seat. Karen Miller, 16 of Topeka, Ind. and Nathan Yoder, 16, of Topeka, Ind,. both in the back seat.
An autopsy was performed at a State Police facility in Ft. Wayne, where carbon monoxide poisoning was found preliminarily to be the cause. Toxicology tests are pending.
“The Kosciusko County Coroner’s office is thinking that it is most likely carbon monoxide poisoning and most likely from the exhaust system on the vehicle,” said Bohner.
“It seems that everything just kind of came together to have unfortunate circumstance with carbon monoxide poisoning,” he said. It’s not something that we talk about very often and run into very often,” he said.
