The three died Tuesday while exploring a complex known as the Wabasha Street caves, said police. They were identified Wednesday as Nicholas Lee Larson, Natalie Lorraine Vanvorst and Patrick Gerard Dague, all 17. A fourth teenager, whose name was not released, was rescued, and his condition was upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious. The 17-year-old boy who escaped the cave on his own and alerted authorities about the others was treated at a hospital and released. He also was not identified. The Wabasha Street caves are a large network of caverns that lies across the Mississippi from downtown St. Paul. Fire officials said the complex extends for miles along the river. Fire Chief Douglas Holton said the teens entered through a small opening about 3 by 5 feet. Once inside, they could stand up, he said. Three roses were laid at the entrance Wednesday. The opening was sealed overnight with sandstone boulders, dirt and fresh-cut logs, Holton said, but the cave complex has so many entrances it's impossible to completely seal it off from the public. Two entrances to the cave that were sealed after a fire two weeks ago were quickly pried open and people burrowed in, he said. In addition, he said, "there are entrances and exits that we don't even know of." Cave visitors sometimes start fires, creating a buildup of carbon monoxide in the caverns, said Holton. But he did not believe the teens themselves started any fire Tuesday because there was no smoke in the cave and the group had flashlights. Rescue workers found the group about 600 feet into the caves. The boy who alerted officials said he briefly lost consciousness and fumbled in darkness before he saw light peering from a hole and found his way out. "I woke up and tried to find some way to get out," said the teen, who did not want his name used. In 1992, Annie Fries and Jill Huntington, both 17, also died of carbon monoxide poisoning, prompting the city to place a plaque at an entrance warning of the dangers of going inside. "Somebody else is going to go through what we went through 12 years ago, and it's got to stop," Connie Lietzau, Fries' mother, told KARE-TV on Tuesday. Three other people have also died since 1988, one from drowning, one from a fire and one in a cave collapse. But the caves and their rich tradition have attracted many curious youths over the years. A local brewery once dug some of the caverns to create earthen warehouses, and a mushroom-growing operation flourished in the moist, dark caves for decades. The caves even hosted a nightclub in the 1930s, the Castle Royal, and mobsters and big-name entertainers were said to frequent the spot. Mayor Randy Kelly said officials will continue trying to keep young people out of the caves, but, like Holton, he was skeptical much could be done to prevent people from getting inside. For one thing, he said, the rock is very soft. "You can take a car key and in five minutes dig a hole with it," Kelly told WCCO Radio of Minneapolis. "So you plug these holes up where kids dig in and they simply just dig around them and go in, anyway."
Three teens die of carbon monoxide in cave along Mississippi at St. Paul; fourth hospitalized
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Authorities sealed an entrance to a riverside cave complex where three teenagers died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, but were skeptical they could prevent people from getting in.
