After losing a brother in an ATV accident in 1989, Victor Marsh didn?t think he could take much more heartache.
So when police said his only remaining brother may be among three found dead on a boat in a Bowleys Quarters marina Monday, Marsh wasn?t sure he wanted to know.
But it was true.
“I am trying to keep from breaking down,” Marsh said from the Dundalk home of his brother, John, who would have turned 40 Monday. “I don?t feel like doing [anything].”
Baltimore County authorities confirmed the identities of the three victims discovered sprawled on the floor of a 30-foot cabin cruiser docked at Parkside Marina as John Marsh, Laura Jean Gladden, 34,of Middle River, and Patty Mae Vento, 42, of Plantation, Fla. The state?s medical examiner confirmed authorities? suspicions after conducting autopsies Tuesday that the trio died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
How long they had been dead remains unclear. Victor Marsh said he spoke to his brother Sunday evening. He learned the boat?s owner ? William Roppelt, the brother of Vento, according to police ? had left the boat, and the other three remained behind.
His brother and Gladden were neighbors growing up and childhood friends, he said.
“He was so well-known in this part of Baltimore County,” Marsh said. “He was so much fun. People loved him for his jokes.”
