A husband and wife who died at their home Friday afternoon in Pulaski County may have been overcome by carbon monoxide, according to the sheriff’s office.
A vehicle was left running for some time in the garage of the home of Lewis Catron, 77, and his wife Carol Catron, 73, which may have led to a deadly level of carbon monoxide in the home, the Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones said. a release
Harold Catron was a longtime member of the sheriff’s office and was serving as an honorary deputy at the time of his death.
He was the older brother of Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron, who was killed in April 2002 by a man allied with a drug dealer.
Jones said a family member went to check on Harold and Carol Catron Friday afternoon and found them unresponsive at their home on Pumphouse Road in Somerset.
The family member called 911. Police were called to respond at 3:50 p.m.
The couple’s cause of death will not be confirmed pending an autopsy, but the preliminary investigation points to carbon monoxide from the vehicle in the garage, the statement said.
Jones described the deaths as accidental.
“We have lost two close friends who have been considered part of the Sheriff’s Office family for years,” Jones said in the statement. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the Catron family as they deal with yet another tragedy.”
Sam and Lewis Catron’s father, Harold Catron, Somerset’s chief of police, died in 1964 from an injury related to a shotgun blast he had suffered a few years earlier.
Carbon monoxide poisoning from vehicles left running in garages has become a bigger concern with the rise of keyless ignition systems.
Sam Catron had been Pulaski County Sheriff for four terms and was running for a fifth term when he was shot and killed in April 2002.
Catron was dropping off fish fry at a rural fire station where he and other candidates had spoken when Danny Shelley, then 30, shot him in the head with a high-powered rifle.
The story continues
Lewis Catron hugs his mother, Jennie Rachel Catron, on April 18, 2002, at the funeral of his brother and son, Sam Catron, who was killed by a man working with a drug dealer.
Shelley was quickly arrested after wrecking the motorcycle he was using in an attempt to escape.
He implicated two others in the plot to kill Catron: Jeff Morris, a former deputy running against Catron after losing his for taking days off without leave, and Kenneth White, a drug dealer.
White was supporting Morris’ campaign, allegedly hoping to have the county’s top police officer in his pocket to protect his drug trade and bootlegging.
Shelley was addicted to pain pills and other drugs at the time, and White was supplying him.
Shelley said his judgment was impaired by drugs when he went along with Morris and White’s plan to kill Catron. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for at least 25 years.
Morris is also serving a life sentence without parole for at least 25 years. White was sentenced to life in prison without parole. and died in prison in 2018.
Sam and Lewis Catron’s father, Harold Catron, a police chief in Somerset, died in 1964 when a pellet left in his chest by a shotgun blast a few years earlier, which could not be removed, it shifted and gave him a heart attack.
