Carbon monoxide may have killed woman

A New Iberia woman was found dead in her home Monday morning, an apparent victim of carbon monoxide poisoning, but the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office have not yet ruled whether the death was accidental.

Cynthia Domingue, 47, was found dead at her house at 1609 Emily St. by her ex-husband, Brian Domingue. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:55 a.m., and the investigation into the exact cause and manner of her death is continuing.

“We have no definite cause and manner of death at this time, and for that reason I am conducting a complete forensic investigation and autopsy, which should begin today,” Iberia Parish Coroner Dr. James Falterman said this morning.

Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Wendall Raborn said the call came in at 11:31 a.m. and deputies responded to the scene at that time.

“There’s no evidence of forced entry right now that we can tell,” Raborn said. “The ex-husband called it in. He came to check on her because they were actually using a generator to run the electricity in the house, as far as I know. They were moving out so he came to check on her this morning and found her deceased.”

Raborn said Brian Domingue has given a statement to deputies, which is standard procedure in such an incident, and was later released.

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal visited the scene and said the generator was inside the house. “The coroner is going to take the body and do a autopsy and let us know the cause of death,” Ackal said. “There is no obvious cause of death. But they did have a generator in the house and, when I walked in, it smelled like carbon monoxide very strongly. The generator went out sometime in the middle of the night.”

Rodney and Laurie Moneaux live near the scene. Rodney said he saw someone mowing the grass at the house Sunday, and Laurie said she saw Cynthia Domingue loading items into the back of a pickup truck at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.