Both MIT grads; one a founder of gaming company Glug Glug[2] and co-author of game Shard[4]
1. http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/01/25/berkeley-toxicology-t...
2. http://kotaku.com/game-developers-mourn-sudden-passing-of-ex...
3. http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Two-people-found-dead-Be...
Further investigation and toxicology reports revealed carbon monoxide (fixed) poisoning. It appears the initial statements ruling out carbon monoxide poisoning were in error.
The UK HSE has published a video of a real-life incident where someone experiences CO2 toxicity from a rebreather (the victim survived and recovered) [1].
All the signs were CO poisoning from the start. I think first responders said the body discoloration looked like that. The "ruled out" is probably just a mangling of: water heater, oven, and furnace all ruled out as CO sources.
Sounds like they were likely running a laser cutter and the "generator" sound was actually an air compressor. (These are used to blow the smoke out of the way of the beam so that you get a cleaner, more accurate cut.)
Chlorine gas is a major risk with a lot of materials, but presumably there could by other kinds of nasty fumes depending on what they were cutting.
edit: others are saying that it was in fact CO, so I'll go with that. I'd still like to know what they were cutting, though.
2015. If that is about the same incident it's quite a while before the current event (unless it's a typo in the article).