Anita Lee & Artheda Lynn Irelan (1967-1967)

ANDREWS, IRELAN, NELSON, TRASK

Posted By: Eileen Reed (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:51

The Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa
Saturday, November 25, 1967
Page 1, Columns 7 & 8

Twin Girls Die-Blame Kitchen Stove Fumes

(The Register's Iowa News Service)

LITTLETON, IA. Five-month-old twin girls were found dead in their crib Friday morning apparently asphyxiated by gas found leaking from a stove in their mobile home here.

Dead are Anita Lee and Artheda Lynn Irelan, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Irelan of Littleton.

Buchanan County Sheriff Fred Beier said the twins were found dead at 7:30 a.m. when their parent awoke and smelled the gas fumes.

Beier said he found a very strong odor of bottle gas coming from the kitchen range when he arrived to investigate.

The twins were the Irelans' only children.

Dr. A. E. Mayner of Winthrop, acting Buchanan county medical examiner, said autopsies were being performed in Waterloo but the results were not yet known.

Sheriff Beier said the mobile home is not divided into separate rooms.

A prayer service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Parker Funeral Home in Jesup, with graveside services at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Rose Hill Cemetery in Eagle Grove.

Surviving are the parents, and grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Irelan of Marshalltown and Mrs. Genevieve Andrews of St. Louis, Mo.

The Courier
Waterloo, Iowa
Sunday, November 26, 1967
Page 23, Columns 8 & 9

Blame Gas Leak For Asphyxiation Of Twin Girls

(COURIER NEWS SERVICE)

LITTLETON --Graveside services for Infant twins daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Irelan of Littleton will be 3:30 p. m. today at Rose Hill Cemetery in Eagle Grove.

Gas leaking from the area of a kitchen stove was blamed for the asphyxiation of Anita Lee and Artheda Lynn Irelan, 5-months-old.

The bodies were found in their crib Friday morning.

The parents told police they awoke and smelled gas, and found their daughters dead.

Buchanan County Sheriff Fred Beier a said he found a strong odor of bottle gas coming from the kitchen range area in the Irelan’s mobile home.

A prayer service will be 1:30 p. m. today at Parker Funeral Home in Jesup.

Besides their parents, they are survived by their paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Irelan of Marshalltown and their maternal grandmother, Mrs. Genevieve Andrews of St. Louis, Mo.

The Des Moines Tribune
Des Moines, Iowa
Tuesday, November 28, 1967
Page 8, Column 2

Continuing Probe of Twin Deaths

(The Tribune's Iowa News Service)

INDEPENDENCE, IA. - Buchanan County authorities Monday continued an investigation into the deaths of five-month-old twin girls in the mobile home of their parents at Littleton. The infants, Anita Lee and Artheda Lynn, daughters of Mr, and Mrs. David Irelan, were found dead in their crib about 7:30 a.m. Friday after the parents awoke and smelled gas fumes. Dr. A. E. Mayner of Winthrop, acting medical examiner, said Monday that results of an autopsy performed at Waterloo are thus far inconclusive.

The reason for the deaths, he said, is now listed as "asphyxiation” with the cause unknown. He said the Waterloo pathologist who performed the autopsies sent samples of tissue and bottled gas to a New York, N.Y., laboratory to establish a "correlation" between the two. "It appears that if gas were the cause of death there would have been enough of it to result in a violent explosion," Mayner said.

The Eagle Grove Eagle
Eagle Grove, Iowa
Thursday, November 30, 1967
Page 14, Column 5

Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Trask and Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Nelson attended graveside rites for the twin daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Ireland at the Eagle Grove Cemetery Sunday afternoon, David Ireland is a nephew of Charlie Trask and a cousin of Mrs. Nelson.

The Courier
Waterloo, Iowa
Sunday, December 03, 1967
Page 26, Columns 1 & 2

Discounts Leaking Gas Theory in Twins Death

(COURIER NEWS SERVICE)

INDEPENDENCE—Preliminary autopsy reports have almost ruled out the possibility that leaking bottle gas from a kitchen stove cause the deaths of infant twin daughters of a Littleton couple Nov. 24.

Anita Lee and Artheda Lynn Irelan, 5-month-old daughters of Mr. and Mrs. David Irelan of Littleton, were found asphyxiated in their cribs the morning of Nov. 24.

Buchanan County Sherriff Fred Beier said then he found a strong odor of bottle gas coming from the range area of the Irelan mobile home.

However, Harlan Lemon, county attorney, said yesterday the infants had, “simply run out of air,” but the exact cause for this had not yet been determined.

Further studies are being conducted in a New York laboratory and the autopsy report is expected “in about a week,” Lemon said.

Lemon also said his investigation revealed no evidence of criminal neglect.

July 10, 1967 – November 24, 1967