North Carolina: Three US Marines found dead inside car at gas station | US News

Three US Marines were mysteriously discovered dead inside a parked car at a gas station.

The three men were found unresponsive around 9am on Sunday in a privately owned vehicle at a Speedway gas station in Hampstead, which is roughly 30 miles south of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Deputies responded to a report of a missing person and ‘during the course of this investigation the deceased persons were located’, stated the Pender County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.

All three Marine Corps lance corporals were pronounced dead the same day.

They have been identified as Tanner Kaltenberg, 19, of Madison, Wisconsin; Merax Dockery, 23, of Pottawatomie, Oklahoma; and Ivan Garcia, 23, of Naples, Florida.

Their cause of death has not been disclosed.

‘There does not appear to have ever been any threat to members of the community,’ stated the sheriff’s office.

Sgt Chester Ward said there were no drugs found in their car. An investigation is ongoing.

‘We do not suspect anything as far as foul play in that matter,’ said Ward, adding that the sheriff’s office is awaiting autopsy results that could show the cause of death ‘might be something that we don’t see’.

Autopsy results could come back as soon as Wednesday, according to Ward.

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