Gas Explosion Follows Man’s Suicide by Poison
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TRENTON, Utah — A historian took a fatal dose of cyanide and turned on the gas before an explosion destroyed his home.
A preliminary medical examiner’s report said cyanide killed A. J. Simmonds, and a bottle of the poison was found in the ruins of the home after Sunday’s blast, along with a wrench and the cap to a natural gas line.
Authorities said Simmonds was likely distraught because his wife, Jeannie, had filed for divorce only two days earlier.
Simmonds, 52, curator of archives and special collections at Utah State University in Logan, was found buried beneath the debris shortly after the explosion.
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