An industrial water meter reader was reported missing when he failed to return to headquarters at the end of his shift. Meanwhile, a passerby saw him lying face-down in a few inches of water at the bottom of an underground meter vault. Emergency workers tried to revive him but were not successful. Investigators detected natural gas in the atmosphere of the chamber, and later found a leak in a nearby natural gas pipeline. An autopsy revealed cause of death to be suffocation due to inhalation of methane and carbon monoxide. It appeared the worker had collapsed hours before he was missed […]