Ohio State Highway Patrol Col. John Born said a co-worker found Trooper Timothy Hall, 48, and his wife, Molly, 52, were dead in their garage near a power generator.
Authorities said Thursday that the Halls used the generator to power their house at 7640 S. Preble County Line Road during an outage.
The Halls were found around 8 a.m. Thursday, but coroner investigators believe their estimated time of death was approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Hall, a 25-year-veteran of State Highway Patrol, had been assigned to the Lebanon post since 1989, according to Lt. Tony Bradshaw, a patrol spokesman. Hall was a few months from retirement, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Timothy Hall’s mother, Jackie Hall, said when her son didn’t report for duty at 6 a.m. Thursday, his close friend, Trooper John Asbrock, was sent to Hall’s home to find out if there was anything wrong.
“He never, ever missed work, even when he was sick,” Jackie said. She said Asbrock found Tim Hall and his wife had apparently died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Jackie Hall said it’s believed that the couple died about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Coroner investigators speculated that Tim Hall was inspecting a generator in the garage when he was overcome by carbon monoxide and died, said Ken Betz, director of Monthgomery County Coroner’s Office. Molly Hall was also overcome by carbon monixide when she entered the garage to check on her husband, Betz said.
That couple, who had been married for four years, were on the garage floor in separate locations and were dressed in street clothes when their bodies were discovered, Betz said.
The garage door was closed and the genrator was not running when the bodies were found, said Germantown Fire Chief Dan Alldred.
Jackie Hall of Trenton-Franklin Road in Madison Twp., Butler County, described her Tim as “just a wonderful son.”
“He never, ever got a spanking,” she said. “He was such a good kid and had never talked back.”
Jackie Hall said her son had always wanted to be a state trooper.
“His mama didn’t want him to be, but he did,” she said.
Tim Hall grew up in the Middletown area and was a wrestler at Madison High School, where he graduated in 1980, Mrs. Hall said.
“We only found out about 9:30 a.m.,” she said. “We’ve always been real close and we called each other every day.”
She said her son’s home had been without power since Tuesday and he’d been using a generator.
“He was always checking on us, and we were checking on him,” Jackie Hall said. “I received a text from him before 6:30 p.m. last night.”
She said her son had always had a generator for such occasions, and had purchased a larger generator following the windstorm caused by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
“We never liked him to use that,” she said. “But all parents can do is worry and hope they’ll be OK.”
Jackie and her husband Clifford, also have a daughter, Debbie Thaeler of Middletown.
Jackie Hall said her son attended Miami University Middletown and Sinclair Community College and had worked at a job until he was accepted into the Ohio Highway Patrol Academy in Columbus.
Staff writers Kelli Wynn, Ed Richter and Steve Bennish contributed to this article.