The Daily Populous Wednesday January 10th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by insideedition.com and submitted by RevCry86

An elderly South Carolina couple were found dead inside their home Saturday and cops say the heater's temperature was 1,000 degrees, according to reports.

Spartanburg Police Department said they were conducting a welfare check just after 6 p.m. Saturday and entered the home, which they described as "extremely hot,” according to WYFF.

The family of the deceased had told police that they had not seen their parents since Wednesday.

When officers arrived, they said all doors were locked, but the window leading into the victims' bedroom was not secure, the police report obtained by WYFF said.

Police said they removed the screen to the window and looked into the bedroom saw the couple was dead, according to the report obtained by WYFF.

Firefighters found the heater in the basement was extremely hot, with a temperature reading inside the heater of over 1,000 degrees before they were able to deactivate it, WSPA reported.

One firefighter said, "the heater was so hot it looked as if the basement was currently on fire,” according to The Messenger.

Once officials realized the heater was not on fire, they deactivated it.

"They then measured the temperature of the heater itself at more than 1,000 degrees," the police report obtained by WYFF said.

Fire officials said the interior temperature of the home still exceeded 120 degrees after the home was open to cold weather for about 20 minutes, according to The Messenger.

Medics measured the body temperatures of the victims with a device that reached up to 106 degrees and both victims exceeded that reading, according to The Messenger.

At first the victims identities were not released, however, on Monday they were identified to the public as Joan Littlejohn, 84, and Glennwood Fowler, 82. Fowler lived at the home and Littlejohn was staying there, The Messenger reported.

Cops said that Fowler was lying on the bed with no clothes on, facing upwards and Littlejohn was slouched in a chair at the side of the bed, according to The Messenger.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger told WYFF that no foul play was involved in their deaths.

"We did not note foul play to the bodies on the scene, but are concerned with why the temperature was so high," Clevenger told WYFF.

The coroner’s office is still working to determine a cause of death, according to WSPA.

Family members said they were at the home on Wednesday to help their parents with the heater as they said both the gas heater and hot water heater were both out and the residence was getting too cold. Family members told police that they "fiddled" with a wire until the pilot light came on, then left, according to The Messenger.

Firefighters continued to air out the home to get rid of the strong odor of natural gas, and the thermometer inside the home started working again before officials left the scene, according to The Messenger.

"Upon looking at it, I stated the residence was at 96 degrees," a responding officer said in the police report obtained by WYFF. "It read this temperature after the house had been open for around two and a half hours."

Correction: A previous version of this story suggested the heater was set at the temperature the heater was ultimately reportedly measured at.