THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 17, 1994 TAG: 9412170244
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Inside St. Andrews Church of God and Christ on Friday, the mood was mournful, punctuated by sobs and wails of grief at a funeral for a family of four found dead Monday of poisoning by fumes from a faulty heating system.
Almost 1,300 mourners passed the four white caskets at the front of the church, a converted movie theater that on this day saw one of its most heart-rending performances.
But outside, the mood was one of anger.
It was directed at the landlords and a city inspection process that many residents of the Park Place neighborhood blame for the carbon monoxide poisoning that killed 38-year-old Julia Dempsey, her two children, William and Lakisha, and her fiance, William E. Staton.
``These were senseless deaths,'' said 61-year-old Fannie F. Jones of the 400 block of 34th St.
``It is a shame that the absentee landlords get money out of these people and do nothing for them.''
Jones, a retired schoolteacher, said that on her Park Place block, only six of the homes are owned by their residents. The rest are owned by people who do not live in the neighborhood.
``It is a shame the way these young black people have to live,'' Jones said.
A malfunctioning chimney on a gas-fueled furnace is blamed for spewing poisonous, odorless carbon monoxide gas throughout the two-story frame house at 208 W. 30th St.
Fire investigators said that soot and bricks from the chimney clogged the exhaust vent, preventing the deadly gas from escaping.
Police believe the two adults and two children - Lakisha was 15 and William Dempsey was 5 - may have died as early as Saturday, the last day any of the four was seen alive.
Fixing the time of death won't be possible until autopsies are complete, a police spokesman said.
The bodies were found by 17-year-old Mashauna Dempsey, a daughter of Julia Dempsey. Mashauna had spent the weekend away from home but was returning to celebrate her birthday with the family.
Since Monday, the city of Norfolk and Virginia Natural Gas have denied responsibility for the deaths. The gas company said that it shut down the furnace in March 1993 by ``red-tagging'' that appliance and a water heater in the house, warning that they be repaired before being used again. The gas company turned off a valve to the furnace but did not turn off gas service to the house.
The city did not know the appliances had been ``red-tagged'' and did not inspect them before the appliances were turned on again.
Building inspectors were not notified, according to the gas company, because the city more than a decade ago asked that the utility quit sending notifications about most ``red tags.'' Only those ``red-tags'' on furnaces with cracked heat exchangers were to be sent on to the city, according to a spokesman for Virginia Natural Gas.
A city spokeswoman said no one, including a retired building-inspection chief, could remember telling the gas company not to notify inspectors of some red tags. And, the spokeswoman said, there was no written record of the city's reported request to the gas company.
Real estate records show that Suzanne Marshall of Virginia Beach owns the house. Friends of the Dempsey family said the tenants had complained to the owner for months that the furnace needed repair.
Marshall owns four other residences in the Park Place section of Norfolk.
Efforts to contact the owners have been unsuccessful.
Five other Norfolk properties: two on Reservoir Avenue; two on Bolton Street; and one on Pleasant Avenue in Ocean View are owned by Marshall or her husband, Dale, a Virginia Beach building contractor. The Marshalls live on Watersedge Drive.
On Friday, at Magnolia Cemetery on Indian River Road, where the Dempsey family was buried, City Councilman Herbert M. Collins said the city needs to re-evaluate the way it inspects properties.
Collins said landlords regularly take advantage of Park Place renters, and the city has been lax by allowing it to happen. He said City Council will discuss the matter at its next meeting.
``These renters are definitely at the mercy of the landlords,'' Collins said. ``So something is definitely going to have to be done with code enforcement.'' ILLUSTRATION: Park Place mourns
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Staff
Mourners grieve at Magnolia Cemetery in Norfolk, where 38-year-old
Julia Dempsey, her two children, William and Lakisha, and her
fiance, William E. Staton, were buried Friday. Carbon monoxide gas
killed them in their Park Place home last weekend.
Four caskets hold the grief of a community Friday at Magnolia
Cemetery. City Councilman Herbert M. Collins promised an examination
of landlord-tenant problems to try to prevent future tragedies.
by CNB