NewmanHarold150JAMESTOWN – Police say  accidental carbon monoxide poisoning took the life of Harold Newman.

A report by Forum Communications,  Emily Welker, Forum News Service,  said, the 80-year-old Newman accidentally left his car running in his Jamestown home’s attached garage before he went to bed February 19,  2014.

Jamestown Police Detective Sgt. Thomas Nagel, said, Newman was found the next day in his bed, having apparently succumbed to the carbon monoxide that built up as he slept.

Nagel said,“We could still smell the gas fumes.”

Police were responding to a call made after Newman failed to show up for a dentist appointment earlier in the day.

Officers determined that Newman accidentally left the car running before going into his home the night before. The door from the garage to the home was closed, and Newman left no note or anything else to indicate the act was deliberate.

Nagel said, “In our carbon monoxide readings, it was quite high when we were there.  Some family members had arrived at the home by the time police arrived.N ewman lived in the home alone, Nagel said.

Nagel  said Newman appeared to have been in good health, but may have been suffering some memory lapses at the time, given his age.

Newman’s body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Bismarck, which found the preliminary cause of death to be an accident.

Nagel said the final results of the medical examiner’s autopsy are expected to take another six weeks or so.