THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140497
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Jeff Brown laid his old and worn bicycle down near the wooden steps leading to the white frame, two-story home at 208 W. 30th St.
He was stopping during a break from work, and he quickly brushed off his tan jacket. His gloves were covered with paint and plaster.
Then he walked up the creaking steps to the door, papered with little laughing Santa Clauses on a bright green background.
He knocked timidly.
A well-dressed young woman opened the door wide, but before Brown could move or say a word, a teenage girl appeared and said the family was receiving no guests, and closed the door.
Brown - a tall, thin man - nodded his head slowly in understanding and walked sadly back to his bike.
Then he stopped once more to look at the house where the bodies of four family members were discovered Monday afternoon.
``I just wanted to pay my respects, because I knew them. They were friends of mine,'' Brown said. ``But I certainly understand the family might not be up to talking right now.''
Brown had been a frequent guest at the home.
He said he had warned his friends they needed to make sure their furnace was fixed correctly.
The four dead - Julia Dempsey, 38; two of her children, Lakisha Dempsey, 15, and William E. Dempsey, 5; and William E. Staton, 41, her fiance and little William's father - had died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Falling bricks had blocked the gas-furnace chimney in the rented home, according to police.
Gases from the furnace, unable to escape through the chimney, backed up into the house.
``Carbon monoxide - the silent killer,'' Brown said with a shake of his head.
Brown knew them all.
Julia Dempsey was an outgoing woman with a lot of friends, he said. They'd known each other for about eight years.
Staton was a nice guy, Brown said, but the quiet sort.
``They used to call him Rabbit, and he walked with a kind of a limp,'' Brown said. Brown also knew the children, the two who died and the 17-year-old, Mashuana Dempsey, who discovered the bodies.
``That was Mashuana just now that said they didn't want to talk to nobody. But I understand, what with all they're going through. They were all real nice people.''
Brown does home-improvement work, and though he doesn't know a lot about furnaces, he said he knew enough to tell Julia Dempsey to make sure she got the furnace checked out thoroughly.
``They'd been having problems with the furnace for years. Julia said it just wouldn't stay lit,'' Brown said.
He said he didn't find out about the deaths until Tuesday morning, as he was hooking up a stove for a woman.
``She said, `Make sure you hook it up right, because I don't want to get killed like those people on 30th Street.' So I asked her what people on 30th Street, but I kinda figured it out right then,'' Brown said. ``But I just didn't want it to be true.''
Brown slowly got on his bike to head back to work. He had a stove - a gas stove - that he carefully, very carefully, had to connect. MEMO: Main story on page B1.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
William Staton, 41, died of carbon monoxide fumes, with his fiancee
and his son.
by CNB