Police: Carbon Monoxide Caused Missionary Deaths

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Police in Taiwan suspect carbon monoxide poisoning caused the deaths of two Mormon missionaries.

The government-owned Central News Agency reported Sunday that Taiwanese authorities found a faulty gas water heater in the apartment shared by the two missionaries.

Police do not suspect foul play and have closed their investigation.

The Mormon church on Saturday announced the deaths of 19-year-old Connor Benjamin Thredgold of Springville, Utah, and 24-year-old Yu Peng Xiong of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Thredgold was three months into his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Xiong had been serving as a missionary since March 2013.

A third missionary, 19-year-old Nancy Ann Vea of West Jordan, Utah, died from injuries in an Oklahoma car crash on Friday.

About 84,600 church missionaries serve worldwide.