Man dies after lighting grill in van

A Coeur d’Alene man charged with sexual abuse of a child lighted a barbecue in his company sales van and died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but authorities said Thursday they are unsure if his death was a suicide or accidental.

The death last week of Kerry G. Malmberg, 48, will be listed as “undetermined,” said Grant County Coroner Jerry Jasman.

Malmberg faced an April trial in Kootenai County on a charge of sexual battery involving a 10-year-old girl.

The charge involved the alleged inappropriate touching of the girl during a “sleep-over” last July in the basement of the Malmberg home in Coeur d’Alene.

He was free on $2,500 bond after being charged with the felony last July in Kootenai County District Court.

In the course of that investigation, Coeur d’Alene police seized Malmberg’s computer from the basement of his home and found multiple images of children involved in sexually explicit conduct.

The victim of the alleged sexual battery was not photographed.

The possible child pornography case was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boise, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson.

The federal prosecutor said she couldn’t discuss reports that Malmberg recently was told he was about to face federal charges of possessing child pornography, carrying a possible five-year mandatory sentence.

His body was found Feb. 18 in his company van parked at the Trinidad rest stop on State Route 28 in Grant County, near Quincy, Wash.

Malmberg was reported missing and the van was reported stolen on Feb. 16 by his employer, Scooters of America, based in Post Falls, said Detective Sgt. Dale Lathan of the Washington State Patrol.

The WSP was called at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 18 by a state Department of Transportation worker who spotted the van and its occupant in the rest stop parking lot.

When troopers and paramedics arrived, they determined Malmberg was dead, lying on his back, fully clothed in the locked van, Lathan said.

No drugs, firearms or alcohol were found in the van, the WSP official said. Investigators also didn’t find a suicide note.

But in the back of the 1999 Chevrolet van, detectives found a round barbecue containing briquettes that had been lighted but burned out to gray ashes, the WSP sergeant said.

Two uncooked steaks lay next to Malmberg’s body.

“The steaks were open, ready to go on the barbecue,” Lathan said. “It appeared he had succumbed to the carbon monoxide from the barbecue.”

An autopsy held Monday at the Grant County Forensics Institute in Moses Lake verified that Malmberg died of carbon monoxide fumes in the van, parked with its windows up, Jasman said.

The coroner said the body was released for burial March 1 in Brea, Calif.