Cumberland house where mother, adult son were found dead had heat turned off
CARMICHAELS – The Cumberland Township home where a woman and her adult son were found dead in December after not being seen in public for nearly two weeks had its heating system turned off, investigators said Thursday as they closed the inquiry into their deaths.
Anna Mae Vrana, 90, and her son, David Vrana 57, were found dead in their respective beds after Cumberland Township police officers entered the home at 360 Ceylon Road near Carmichaels to perform a welfare check Dec. 20 after the two had not been seen for several days.
Anna Mae Vrana died of natural causes, an autopsy revealed, while David Vrana died from hypothermia. His manner of death was listed as accidental.
The autopsies, performed by pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht’s firm, revealed that Anna Mae Vrana died before David, although investigators are not sure of the exact date of either of their deaths, Greene County Coroner Gene Rush said.
“It was probably as unique of circumstances as you’re ever going to run into,” Rush said. “They had to die days apart because of how long it takes for hypothermia to set in. Just a coincidental type of death with those two.”
The mother appeared “emaciated” when police arrived at the house, and the heat was off, Rush said.
“There was absolutely no heat in the house,” Rush said.
The home had no heat at the time because the thermostat was turned to the off position, said Greene County Deputy Coroner Martin Yoskovich, who was at the scene. The temperature inside the house when investigators arrived Dec. 20 was just 45 degrees, he said, but it could have been colder overnight. Investigators do not know why the heating unit was turned off during the winter, although Rush said the mother and son lived a “miserly” existence.
Although investigators might never know when the two died, Yoskovich said a daily calendar had last been manually turned Dec. 7, nearly two weeks before the bodies were discovered. However, he said that does not necessarily mean that was the day either of them died, because other factors could have played a role.
Police performed a welfare check on the home Dec. 20 after several people in the Carmichaels area said they hadn’t seen the mother and son for about two weeks. There also had been no activity with phone, banking and vehicle records during that time.
Cumberland Township police Chief Bryan Smith said the house had working natural gas service and there was no indication of carbon monoxide poisoning. He said the investigation is now closed.