Deaths of couple found inside Berkeley apartment deemed 'suspicious'

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Berkeley police are investigating what they call the suspicious deaths of a couple that was found dead inside their apartment on Haskell Street.

It's the second time in just a few weeks something like this has happened in that city.

Dora Bibbs, 89, was found dead in bed by her son Saturday morning and her boyfriend Gary White, 56, was also found dead on the floor beside her.

Bibbs and White were in love. Their 33-year-age difference didn't phase them.

Emergency crews said the heater was on when they arrived and the small apartment was hot, with the carbon monoxide alarm going off.

Police still don't know what caused the couples' death.

Their family rushed to the scene Saturday and worry the circumstances sound really familiar.

Just a mile away, the bodies of Valerie and Roger Morash were found in their apartment last month.

They died of carbon monoxide poisoning. "Pretty much the same thing with my grandmother as far as because we don't feel foul play or nothing, it feels like the same situation but to an older couple," Bibbs' grandson Jaymo Battiste said.

Police thoroughly checked the wall heater in the Morashes' apartment and still don't know the source of the gas.

The Morashes' neighbors were shocked to hear of the latest deaths. "I don't want that to start becoming an epidemic around here. That's not a good thing," one woman said.

These loved ones just want answers fast. "We just lost two great people. They still should be here," one man said.

Bibbs was recently diagnosed with uterine cancer and didn't have long to live.

White became her care taker. The 89-year-old didn't let the cancer change her.

"She was going to keep it 100 with you all the way across the board. She wasn't going to sugar coat and be nice because your feelings would get hurt. She'd finish hurting them for you, but she'd let you know you could be loved," Battiste said.

Both Bibbs and White lived in Berkeley their entire lives.