NC Hotel Mystery as Room Sees 3rd Death in 2 Months

Three people have died in the same North Carolina hotel room since April, in a mystery authorities are still investigating. On Saturday, Jeannie Williams and her 11-year-old son, Jeffrey, were found unresponsive in the Best Western room in Boone. Jeffrey was pronounced dead; his mother awoke from her coma yesterday. In the same room on April 16, an elderly couple was found dead, a police sergeant confirms to WCNC. The station reports today that carbon monoxide was found at the hotel, though there's no word yet whether that's what killed Jeffrey Williams.

Guests were evacuated as a hazmat team did forensic tests, which are still ongoing, on the room. Authorities are also waiting on toxicology test results, and so far they won't say whether the three deaths are linked. But Williams' uncle has no doubt about what killed Jeffrey: "He was killed by the hotel and the problem is we don't know what it was," he says. As for the elderly couple, WBTV identifies them as Daryl and Shirley Jenkins; a cousin says their cause of death was never made clear. The outraged son of the couple tells the Times-News that Best Western should have done testing on the room after his parents' deaths. "Why are they still renting out this room?" he says, adding that his parents were "two healthy people who died within two feet of each other. Things just don't add up." (More carbon monoxide stories.)