SULLIVAN - Carbon-monoxide poisoning is suspected in the weekend death of a 63-year-old Hammond man on his houseboat at Lake Shelbyville, the Moultrie County coroner said.

Coroner Lynn Reed said he pronounced Harold Ray Ponder dead at 3:45 a.m. Sunday on Ponder's boat in a cove near the Findlay marina.

Ponder's wife, Katana, was also on board the vessel. She was treated for carbon-monoxide poisoning at Shelby Memorial Hospital in Shelbyville and released, the coroner said.

Although results of an autopsy performed in Springfield were still pending as of press time Tuesday, Reed said, "I still believe (carbon-monoxide poisoning) is a strong possibility" as the cause of Ponder's death.

The coroner said the Ponders anchored their boat in a cove behind the Findlay marina Saturday afternoon and left the generator-powered air conditioner running.

"Later that evening, (they) both started feeling sick," Reed said.

They went to bed, but at about 2 a.m. Sunday, Katana Ponder awoke to find her husband unresponsive, the coroner said. She called emergency personnel on her cell phone.

Sullivan Fire and Rescue later re-created the closed-in, air-conditioned environment inside the Ponders' houseboat and found the carbon-monoxide level was 550 parts per million and rising. This level "is extremely dangerous," Reed said.

He said Harold Ponder also suffered from cardiac and circulatory problems, so "a lower level of CO would be fatal for him."

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