Tragedy struck a Roslyn Heights family Sunday morning as the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning killed six people at a residence at 27 Parkway Drive. The owner of the house, Dr. Andrei Kranz, returned from his night shift at the Nassau County Medical Center to find his two parents, his two-year old daughter and three family friends from Romania all dead from breathing the poisonous fumes.

In what Nassau County police have called a "freak set of circumstances," the tragedy began to unfold when the air conditioning unit of the house was turned on Saturday night. At the same time the unit was running, the residence's vented furnace was set at 74 degrees. Carbon monoxide fumes from the heating system seeped into the air conditioning unit and then were emitted throughout the house.

The house's carbon monoxide detector had been disconnected because, apparently, it had been recently giving off false alarms. A police investigation continues, but foul play has definitely been ruled out as a motive. Police have determined, however, that the furnace was improperly vented. This helped to allow the carbon monoxide fumes to find their way into the air conditioning unit.

Further investigations found that the heating system had been releasing carbon monoxide throughout the house for at least several months. The emission only reached deadly levels when the air conditioner was turned on. When the house was built in 1987, the Town of North Hempstead Building Department approved permits for a heating and ventilation system, but not for an air conditioning unit.

On Sunday morning, neighbors said they saw Dr. Kranz sitting on the sidewalk in front of his house, holding his two-year old daughter. The doctor himself was taken to Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow where he was listed in critical, but stable condition before being released on Monday. Fortunately enough, two Kranz family members were spared from the tragedy. Dr. Kranz's wife, Anca, also a physician, and his seventeen-year old daughter were in Romania attending to immigration matters and were not at the house last Sunday.

Police identified the victims as 84-year old Marcus Kranz, his wife, Victoria and the two-year old daughter, Simina. The three house guests were identified as Emil Ioan Campeanu, 75, Maria Mihaela Campeanu, 68, and Emelia Dumtru, 58, all of Romania. Mr. Campeanu was one of Dr. Kranz's former medical professors in Romania.

The Kranz' had lived in Roslyn Heights for about three years. A native of Romania, Dr. Kranz has been living in the United States for 30 years. Dr. Kranz's deceased parents also lived in Roslyn Heights. Dr. Kranz is a resident in radiology at Nassau County Medical Center. He also practices at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. Neighbor Debbie Annunziata described the family as "very nice, hard working people." Others described then as intelligent and devoted friends and neighbors, while also expressing concern for surviving family members who were far from New York when the tragedy occurred. All day on Monday, press corp from major New York City area media outlets camped out in front of the house, while neighbors offered condolences to surviving friends and relatives of the victims.