Carbon-monoxide death probe continues
Investigation into incident results in multiple search warrants
Aspen — An investigation into the Thanksgiving holiday deaths of a family of four at an Aspen-area home has spawned multiple search warrants, as a team of experts continue to seek answers for the tragedy, authorities said.
“They are getting everybody from every part of that system in there to look at it,” Pitkin County Sheriff’s Deputy Marie Munday said of the probe, which began shortly after the bodies of Parker Lofgren, 39; his wife, Caroline, 42; and their children, Owen 10, and Sophie, 8, were found Nov. 28.
The investigation, which is headed by the sheriff’s office, could take weeks or months to complete, Munday said.
“It’s just huge,” she said late last week on the scope of the inquiry. “There is no reason to rush it and make mistakes along they way.”
Each time entrance is needed into the home, the sheriff’s office is required to get a search warrant.
The list of people who have entered the home ranges from law-enforcement officials to experts from various manufacturers and attorneys, Munday said.
The residence is located about four miles east of Aspen in unincorporated Pitkin County.
The sheriff’s department to date has been tight-lipped about the investigation and has not released any details since the first week of December.
That is when an investigator found that “a combination of errors” in the electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems caused carbon monoxide to infiltrate the residence.
The bodies were found in a bedroom by friends who had driven from Denver to share the house with them for the holiday weekend.
Autopsies determined they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
It was not clear if investigators found a carbon-monoxide detector in the home.
A Pitkin County building code requires homes to have one carbon-monoxide detector, though it is not specific as to the location, the sheriff’s office said.

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