PORT ANGELES — An elderly couple found dead in their hot tub Friday afternoon appear to have died of natural causes, Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said.
James Register, 88, and Lillian Register, 82, were found dead in a hot tub by a live-in relative at their residence in the 200 block of Fogarty Avenue at about noon Friday.
The causes of death is unknown, Gallagher said.
“There’s no evidence of foul play or alcohol,” he said.
Neither Gallagher or Fire Chief Dan McKeen knew the temperature of the hot tub’s water.
Underwriters Laboratory requires that hot tub temperature controls permit a maximum of 104 degrees.
That was in response to a 1979 warning from the Consumer Products Safety Commission that heat strokes could be caused by 106-degree water.
The advisory recommended 104 degrees as the maximum temperature for hot tub water.
Police will have toxicology tests done by the State Patrol lab to see if any substance contributed to the deaths of the two people, Gallagher said.
Results are expected in six to eight weeks.
The coroner, which in Clallam County is prosecuting attorney Deb Kelly, will receive copies of the police reports and determine if an autopsy is necessary, he said.
