MIDDLETOWN, Ohio, Oct. 21 (UPI) —
A teenage girl who died during a visit to a haunted house in Ohio had a heart condition that was a "time bomb," her grandmother said.
Christian Faith Benge, 16, collapsed at the Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park in Middletown and died at a hospital a short time later. Her grandmother, Betty Benge said Christian was about half way through the house when her heart gave out.
Family members said she had lived with a congenital heart condition her entire life.
"They said she was like a time bomb," Betty Benge said.
Jean Benge, Christian’s mother, said her daughter’s lungs failed to develop, leaving the heart to compensate.
Christian was a sophomore at New Miami High School in the Cincinnati area and sang in the choir at the Eaton Road Full Gospel Church, where her grandfather, Ernest Benge, is the long-time pastor.
The Land of Illusion says on its website that it has "four haunted houses and one haunted trail with terrors that never string you up the same way twice." Doyle Burke, chief investigator for Warren County, said there is no way to determine if the visit played any role in Christian’s collapse.
"Is this something that occurred because she had a heightened sense of fear? Or is this something that she could have been walking down the street and this occurred? We may never know that, but there’s really no way to medically pinpoint that." Burke said.
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