Kenneth Nygaard - Kenneth Engie

[Matt C]

I did not see a thread about the carbon monoxide poisoning death of Kenneth Nygaard. The case originally aired on November 28th, 1990 and is described below:

Unexplained Death: Kenneth Nygaard was found dead, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning, in the garage of his North Dakota home. Authorities ruled his death a suicide but his family believes a man named Curtis Heck may have been responsible for his death. Heck and Nygaard reportedly had a bar brawl on the night before his death.

Have there been any updates on this case? I felt that Curtis Heck seemed pretty sincere in his interview and that this was most likely an accidental death.

[justins5256]

Huh, weird. I thought his last name was Ingee - not sure of the correct spelling, but it was pronounced like "ing-e".

Anywho...

I too thought that Curtis Heck seemed credible in his interview.

I always thought the family was reading too much into things and that this was most likely an accidental death caused by Ingee's own inebriation and possibly stupidity. He probably blacked out from drinking too much alcohol and succumbed to the carbon monoxide that had collected in his sealed garage.

Definitely one of the weaker "accident or murder?" Unexplained Death type segments.

[RobinW]

Just where did the name Kenneth Nygaard come from anyway? The segment calls him Kenneth Engie and the UM website calls him that, yet the UM Wikia site calls him Kenneth Nygaard and the video of the case on the forbidden site is labelled "Kenneth Nygaard" as well! Looks like we have an unsolved mystery-within-a-mystery here...

And, yes, I also concur that the victim's death was caused by his own stupidity and this segment never should have been on UM. This big problem I had is that the theory that Kenneth's family presented was that Curtis Heck walked into the garage, saw him on the floor and turned off the ignition before leaving. Well, if their theory is true, then so what? The guy never actually committed a crime!

[TracyLynnS]

I watched this again a couple days ago. My impression was that it was just a terrible accident due to the circumstances of the involved parties having too much to drink and not thinking clearly.

[killgas20]

Nygaard was the last name of Kenneth's uncle interviewed in the segment.

[wiseguy182]

I'm afraid I'm about to make things more confusing. Threads do exist on this case, if you search for Kenneth Ingy.

But yeah, I've posted on this case before and I've always felt Kenneth's death was his own fault, so I agree with the masses. I also had a tough time feeling any sympathy for Ingy given that he was a complete jerk the night of his death. I seem to recall he got drunk and beliegerent, started a fight, wanted to take the waitress against her will, and drunk drive her home, then damaged some property. There was absoutlely no evidence that Curtis Heck was responsible, just a possible scenario given by Ingy's family. I agree that there really isn't any mystery here.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Ingee

Originally Posted by RobinW

Engie

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Ingy

Well - looks like we found the real mystery. My work here is done.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by RobinW

Just where did the name Kenneth Nygaard come from anyway? The segment calls him Kenneth Engie and the UM website calls him that, yet the UM Wikia site calls him Kenneth Nygaard and the video of the case on the forbidden site is labelled "Kenneth Nygaard" as well! Looks like we have an unsolved mystery-within-a-mystery here...

And, yes, I also concur that the victim's death was caused by his own stupidity and this segment never should have been on UM. This big problem I had is that the theory that Kenneth's family presented was that Curtis Heck walked into the garage, saw him on the floor and turned off the ignition before leaving. Well, if their theory is true, then so what? The guy never actually committed a crime!

I think the family believed that Ingy had another altercation with Heck inside the garage and ended up unconscious as a result of that altercation. To that end, Heck may have been partially responsible for Ingy's death if he knew the truck was on. However, even the family alleges Heck turned the truck off, so I'm not sure what, if any, duty of care Heck owed Ingy at that point. Perhaps it could be argued that
Heck had a duty to get Ingy out of the garage since the truck was running inside and a "reasonable person" could assume there was carbon monoxide inside the garage. That logic is flimsy at best and probably pretty difficult to prove.

Even if Heck could be charged, I would think the charge would be something minor like involuntary manslaughter, and I would imagine that any competent criminal defender could get it dismissed easily since there are other ways Ingy could have caused his own demise without Heck's intervention.

[TheCars1986]

I've always wondered just how Kenneth's family could hold Curtis Heck responsible for his death. Both men had just gotten into a fight over a woman, and Kenneth plowed into Heck's pickup truck minutes after the altercation. So when Heck went back over to Kenneth's house to seek revenge and finds him passed out on the garage floor all of a sudden he's supposed to have compassion for the guy who fought him and totaled his truck an hour earlier? And even if their was a second altercation in the garage (although there is not one single shred of evidence to support this), why would anyone think Heck would be level headed enough to remember to drag Kenneth out of the garage so he wouldn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning? Kenneth's uncle definitely did some logic stretching to put the blame on Curtis Heck, IMO. Heck admitted on camera that he was pissed at Kenneth for hitting his truck and wanted him to sleep on the garage floor (thinking that he was sick from drinking), which seems like a logical thing to say in that situation.

[RobinW]

I think this case simply made it onto UM because it had a good "hook": man is found dead in garage due to carbon monoxide poisoning, but why was the ignition to the truck turned off? However, the police's theory on how that happened just made a lot more sense than the victim's family's suspicions of foul play and once you're done watching the segment, you realize there was no real mystery here.

It kinda reminds me of the Paul Ferrell final appeal case where it was so obvious the guy was guilty, but UM probably thought the overall case had enough intiguing elements to merit a spot on their show.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Heck admitted on camera that he was pissed at Kenneth for hitting his truck and wanted him to sleep on the garage floor (thinking that he was sick from drinking), which seems like a logical thing to say in that situation.

That's partly why I believe Heck. If he was guilty of any wrongdoing why even admit he want inside the garage and saw Ingy on the floor? He could have said he never set foot in the garage, or that he couldn't find the door or something. If he truly was trying to cover up or downplay his involvement, the story he told does the opposite.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by justins5256

That's partly why I believe Heck. If he was guilty of any wrongdoing why even admit he want inside the garage and saw Ingy on the floor? He could have said he never set foot in the garage, or that he couldn't find the door or something. If he truly was trying to cover up or downplay his involvement, the story he told does the opposite.

Not to mention that Heck had a witness who could have corraborated his story about how long he spent in the garage with Engie and whether or not an actual second fight took place. The waitress from the bar was with him the entire time.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Even if Heck could be charged, I would think the charge would be something minor like involuntary manslaughter, and I would imagine that any competent criminal defender could get it dismissed easily since there are other ways Ingy could have caused his own demise without Heck's intervention.

Agreed. I think that the worst case scenario is that a minor scuffle also took place inside the garage and Curtis left him to sleep on the floor, oblivious to the possibility of carbon monoxide being present. Even in that worst case scenario, could Curtis possibly be responsible for anything beyond involuntary manslaughter as you said? Also as you said, a competent criminal defender could get that dismissed.

I would say that Curtis came across as being very sincere and everything he said was consistent with the facts presented. Nothing he said was disproved in any way, there were just some blanks left to fill in, which Kenneth's uncle did, but those blanks could be filled any number of ways. I think Curtis also came across as wanting the case to be solved which made me feel that he did not like some of the gossip surrounding the case and he too [as well as Kenneth's family] wanted the case further investigated so that...well...so that TV shows like UM stop calling him to appear on national television to portray him as a potential murderer when they need filler.

[rickengie]

I am his brother and the one who got it on Unsolved Mystries for very valid reasons. I am more than happy to share them.

[unsolved88]

Originally Posted by rickengie

I am his brother and the one who got it on Unsolved Mystries for very valid reasons. I am more than happy to share them.

Please tell us.