They had never previously stayed on the boat, but had done plenty of overnight trips during which they would stay in huts or similar.<\/p>\n
At Safe Cove, the men had dinner using a Cobb Grill. They then watched a rugby game.<\/p>\n
They had a petrol generator running to power Starlink, so they could stream the game and have phone reception.<\/p>\n
A new diesel heater installed just two days prior was running.<\/p>\n
When they went to bed about 10pm to 10.30pm, they turned off the diesel heater.<\/p>\n
During the night, Murrell turned the heater back on, although it was not confirmed if he had also turned the petrol generator back on.<\/p>\n
Rick Murrell died following a fishing accident on Lake Manapouri. Photo \/ Southland Business Chamber<\/p>\n
About 7.20pm on July 20, Allison\u2019s wife, concerned her husband had not returned that day as planned, phoned police. <\/p>\n
She was able to provide a location to police based on her husband\u2019s cell phone.<\/p>\n
About 1am on July 21, a rescue helicopter found the boat in Safe Cove.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next thing Mr Allison remembers is a man, now known to have been from the Fiordland Marine Search and Rescue Team, banging on the boat telling him to get onto the deck,\u201d Coroner McKenzie wrote.<\/p>\n
Allison felt very groggy; however, he managed to get up. He tried to revive Murrell, but could not.<\/p>\n
Confused and unwell, Allison was given medical attention before being taken by helicopter to Southland Hospital.<\/p>\n
The boat remained in situ overnight and was taken back to Manapouri by police, where Murrell\u2019s body was recovered.<\/p>\n
The petrol generator used on the boat was found switched on and empty.<\/p>\n
During the police investigation into Murrell\u2019s death, a report from LM Safety, Occupational Hygienists, looked into how carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon-based chemicals could enter and build up in the boat\u2019s cabin. <\/p>\n
LM Safety set up the boat\u2019s contents, including the diesel heater and petrol generator, to match the conditions at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
The tests showed that the petrol generator was the likely source of carbon monoxide, as exhaust fumes were found to enter the cabin through the wire loom access hole. <\/p>\n
Elevated carbon monoxide readings were noted along this pathway, compared to other entry points. <\/p>\n
The testing also revealed that the diesel heater did not significantly raise carbon monoxide levels in the cabin. <\/p>\n
When the heater was running alone, the levels were low. <\/p>\n
However, there was a sharp increase in carbon monoxide when the generator was turned on, indicating that exhaust fumes – not fuel vapours – were leaking into the cabin.<\/p>\n
Maritime New Zealand advised in the report that the diesel heater could have created a vacuum that drew in air from outside the cabin to replace the internal cabin air.<\/p>\n
This was on the basis that simultaneously running the diesel heater and the petrol generator on the deck combined to produce fatal CO levels within 3.5 hours. <\/p>\n
Murrell was sleeping on the floor just inside the door and close to where the fumes entered. <\/p>\n
The report outlined that if the diesel heater creates negative pressure in the cabin, outside air drawn from the deck can be contaminated by exhaust fumes from the generator.<\/p>\n
Maritime New Zealand\u2019s investigations also showed that the diesel heater\u2019s exhaust had been correctly installed, with no visible signs of leakage. <\/p>\n
An autopsy on July 23, 2025, showed the carbon monoxide level in Murrell\u2019s system was nearing a lethal level. However, it was not quite over the fatal threshold for an otherwise healthy adult.<\/p>\n
However, Murrell\u2019s heart disease and the alcohol in his system would have made him more susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning.<\/p>\n
This would likely explain why he died at a slightly lower carbon monoxide level, the coroner\u2019s findings say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese additional factors may also help explain why his friend survived and he did not, despite them both sleeping on the same boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner McKenzie accepted that Murrell died from carbon monoxide toxicity in the context of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and alcohol use.<\/p>\n
McKenzie consulted Maritime New Zealand for any safety comments or recommendations.<\/p>\n
Maritime New Zealand outlined that although CO detectors are not required, the absence of a detector increases the risk of undetected CO exposure.<\/p>\n
It was noted that it is not a requirement to have a CO detector in a recreational boat.<\/p>\n
The publication Powerboat Magazine states that marine-certified carbon monoxide detectors are available at a cost of $65 to $115.<\/p>\n
Coroner McKenzie extended her condolences to Murrell\u2019s family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They had never previously stayed on the boat, but had done plenty of overnight trips during which they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[682,5532,6255,40605,12629,634,6179,11424,118912,3087,1874,71,193025,114570,18390,13207,7055,193024,16122,193026,30863,111,43,139,69,22126,88069,111177,61,1315,13797,12025,6123],"class_list":{"0":"post-368303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-being","9":"tag-boat","10":"tag-businessman","11":"tag-carbon","12":"tag-coroner","13":"tag-death","14":"tag-died","15":"tag-finds","16":"tag-fiordland","17":"tag-fishing","18":"tag-found","19":"tag-from","20":"tag-fumes","21":"tag-generator","22":"tag-invercargill","23":"tag-lake","24":"tag-linked","25":"tag-manapouri","26":"tag-mans","27":"tag-monoxide","28":"tag-muchloved","29":"tag-new-zealand","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-newzealand","32":"tag-nz","33":"tag-petrol","34":"tag-poisoning","35":"tag-slept","36":"tag-to","37":"tag-trip","38":"tag-used","39":"tag-wellknown","40":"tag-while"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}