Don’t hold your breath. On second
thought, you might want to, especially if you ever had doubts whether your
husband was psychotic or not. Adair
Javier Garcia’s wife should have second guessed herself when leaving her family
behind, and Margaret Jones, well, she had no idea her husband he couldn’t keep
his hose to himself in more than one way. The women easily failed to detect the
danger that lay in her future, just as how easily it is for carbon monoxide to
go undetected. Described as a “silent killer,” carbon monoxide has no means of
paltry disclosure until it is too late.
Adair
Javier Garcia’s wife left him to tend to their six children sometime before
February of 2002, possibly concluding that she realized that having six
children plus a husband was a mistake. But that did not stop Garcia from being
a loving and caring father. He took his children to see Peter Pan 2, treat them to a gourmet dinner at Chuck E. Cheese’s
and tucked them right into bed after they made tapes of themselves for their
mother. His love for his children was clearly undeniable from the evident
purchase of charcoal and matches he planned on using to kill himself and his
children. I think it’s safe to say that he did not win the Father of the Year
award this time around. In his own tape, Garcia explains to his wife that she
broke his heart, and that killing himself and his children was the only way he
could approach the situation. It seems that Garcia took the phrase “crazy in
love” to heart, literally. Garcia closed the windows and secured blankets over
the outsides of them and lit the charcoal he purchased earlier in a grill in
the hallway outside his children’s bedrooms. The next morning, Garcia’s
mother-in-law came to take the children to school and found the house filled
with smoke, and quickly called the authorities. Out of the six children, only
one child survived, as well as Garcia himself.
In
a different murderous attempt, Mr. Cranog Jones sought the aid of carbon
monoxide to eradicate the life of Margaret, his beloved wife. Educated and a
well-to-do citizen, Mr. Jones was an engineer and the head of education and training at
an industrial defense company in England. Being a typical man, Mr. Jones sought
pleasure from outside his not-so-happy home, and had numerous extramarital
affairs. It is quite obvious Mr. Jones failed to use the head that was placed
on his shoulders, and used the other to do his thinking, but somewhere along
the lines, he proposed that murdering his wife would be the right decision, in
order to keep a steady hand on her finances, yet ridding himself of the
supposedly wretched woman. Cunningly, Jones disguised his devious projection as
the simple installation of a brand new sink and vanity unit. He drilled a hole
through the outside of his wife’s bedroom, which he filled with a plastic pipe
that directed through the conservatory and down the hall at the back of the
garage. Another hole was made through the garage so that the exhaust pipe of
her vehicle would fit. That night while Margaret was dreaming lovely dreams of
her adorning husband, Jones was connecting a box to the pipe in the bedroom
wall, and after, starting the car with its choke at its maximum. His last move
was to the arrange the box in Margaret’s bedroom so that she would breathe in
the fumes and become unconscious, carry her body into the garage, and
disassemble the deadly unit. However, just as many tenderfoot criminals do,
Jones did not think his plan through, and the sounds from the car awoke
Sleeping Beauty, and she found him crouching at the side of her bed. At least
he was smart enough to kill the phone connection so that Margaret could not use
it. That’s a start. Luckily for Margaret, she made it safely out of the house
and called the local police.
It
may be concluded that the husbands in both these cases chose carbon monoxide as
their poison due to its valuable characteristic. Let me rephrase that. The
characteristics in choosing carbon monoxide as a weapon is cherished complete
and utter whack jobs. Suicide and accidental death are the most two common
forms of death caused by carbon monoxide. Whether it is sticking your head in
the oven or a leaky pipe, carbon monoxide is a deadly killer that, when not
used to tell the world how much you hate it, may be prevented. Carbon Monoxide
is a colorless, odorless and very poisonous gas which means that those who are
being poisoned cannot directly tell. Carbon monoxide (CO), works its magic by
converting hemoglobin in the blood to useless carboxyhemoglobin, which
annihilates any capacity it has to bring oxygen from the lungs to the muscles
and brain. This may bring about death, if not taken care of immediately, and if
not death, then it may cause permanent brain damage. This poisonous gas is
derived from carbon or methane, CH4, by reacting either molecules with oxygen
or steam (Emsley, 2008, p.137). Carbon monoxide is a production of incomplete
combustion of hydrocarbons, and can be produced from carbon or through a means
of which a synthesis, or syngas, is produced (Ernst & Zimbrak, 1998; Emsley,
2008, p.137). The chemical structure of this gas a simple, two-atom molecule,
contains the same number of electrons and has a triple bond between the two
atoms (Emsley, 2008, p.138). The carbon monoxide molecule is that of a polar
one, and no, this does not mean it likes the cold, or is found in the North
Pole where Santa lives, but rather that it has an uneven distribution of
electrons; it is asymmetrical (Emsley, 2008, p.138) The one, non-bonding pair
of electrons may attach to metal atoms (Emsley, 2008, p.138).
Ironically,
there are slight traces of carbon monoxide that can be found in the human body,
but obviously, too much can kill a person. Research results yielded that carbon
monoxide is actually made in various tissues of the body by heme oxygenase, an
enzyme that breaks down heme and was suggested that it was abundant in the
spleen, but other research suggested it was found in the brain (Carbon
monoxide, 1993). The carbon atom in carbon monoxide originates from a –CH group
in the hemoglobin molecule, which can be oxidized to carbon monoxide with help
from heme oxygenase, in the body, and this suggests that carbon monoxide may
actually play the role of a neurotransmitter (Emsley, 2008, p.145). The
hemoglobin in the human body is the actual distributer of the slight amount of
carbon dioxide that is found, as well as the main attracting force for the
chemical. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Inside the bodies of Garcia’s
children, a chemical reaction was happening. The toxicity of carbon monoxide is
a result from a tissue hypoxia (inadequate oxygenation of the blood), and
direct carbon monoxide-mediated damage at the cellular level (Ernst &
Zimbrak, 1998). The carbon dioxide and oxygen race to the binding site of
hemoglobin, and unfortunately for oxygen, hemoglobin has more of an attraction
for carbon monoxide. Good guys always finish last! The carbon monoxide
attachment alters the shape of the hemoglobin, which then affects the release
of oxygen, and accounts for tissue damage and cellular hypoxia problems (Ernst
& Zimbrak, 1998).
Just
as most poisons, peoples’ bodies react differently to different chemicals. What
Garcia’s children went through, and what Mr. Jone’s had hoped his wife would
suffer from, would be a deadly reaction to the carbon monoxide the two men
released into the home. Slight symptoms may occur with increasing intensity of
headaches, then dizziness and nausea, leading to unconsciousness and eventually,
death (Emsley, 2008, p.142). Air concentrations of 35 ppm cause no detectable
symptoms, but the more concentrated, the more likely symptoms will occur. The
amount of carbon monoxide in the air we breathe is usually less than 0.001
percent, which is no cause for concern (Ernst & Zimbrak, 1998). However,
levels of carbon monoxide between 1,500 and 12,000 ppm (parts per million)
cause death within two hours to as little as ten minutes (Emsley, 2008, p.142).
The quickness of the poison as well as concealing its presence is why these two
men chose to use such a chemical as carbon monoxide. After concluding that one
is suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, the victim must be subjected to,
at least, pure oxygen, for it reduces the half-life of carboxyhemoglobin by
making a come-back at the binding site and showing the hemoglobin that there is
more to him than just his looks, not only does he keep the blood flow healthy,
he can improve tissue oxygenation, too, and that’s all that matters! (Ernst
& Zimbrak, 1998). However, it was too late for the five Garcia children to
be rescued saved, but luckily for Garcia himself, his child, and even Mrs.
Jones, they escaped great tragedy.
Garcia
was arrested in March of 2005, and was convicted June 8, 2005. His life was
spared, but he was sentenced to life. He could have gotten away with it too if
it wasn’t for his blundering mistake: the amount of carbon monoxide was
probably more or less around 500 ppm, which is only about 0.005 percent. This
is enough to cause dizziness and nausea for himself and his nine-year old
daughter. As for Mr. Jones, his trial stood April of 1993, and on April 23, he
was found guilty. He was sentenced only nine years in jail. I think the lesson we can take from this is to always keep track of who are you are married to, and if things aren't going well, second guess any headache or dizziness you're feeling, for your own safety. Just to be on the safe side, run to the Home Depot and buy a carbon monoxide detector, or two, and just don't tell your spouse where you have placed them, since you never really can tell if it's just a migraine from having six children, or it's your husband trying to kill you. No big deal, right?
Sources
(1993). Carbon monoxide: Killer to brain messenger in one step. Science, 259(5093). The American Association for the Advancement of Science: Washington.
Ernst, A & Zimbrak, J.D. (1998).Carbon monoxide poisoning. The new england journal of medicine, 339(22). Massachusetts Medical Society: Boston.
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