A teenage girl who died after collapsing at a haunted house attraction in Ohio had a pre-existing heart condition, an official said on Tuesday.
Christian Faith Benge, 16, collapsed over the weekend when she visited the Land of Illusion complex with friends and family in Middletown, Ohio, 20 miles south of Dayton. She was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
“It’s a natural death,” said Doyle Burke, chief investigator for the Warren County Coroner’s office. He said Benge had a heart condition and went willingly to the haunted-house complex.
Unlike amusement park rides or portable inflatable devices, haunted houses are not subject to state regulations, said Brett Gates, a spokesman with the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Land of Illusion said in a statement on Tuesday that Benge had gone to the complex to listen to her father’s band play a concert. It said she then went into one of the attractions and that first responders on site attended to her when she collapsed.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for information about whether it posts warning signs at the haunted houses.
Reporting by Steve Bittenbender in Louisville, Kentucky; editing by Fiona Ortiz, Mohammad Zargham and Peter Cooney.
