Pair’s Suicide Similar to That of 4 N.J. Youths

ALSIP, Ill. — Two young women, one holding a rose and a stuffed animal, the other a photo album, were found dead in a garage, apparently victims of the same method of suicide used by four teen-agers in New Jersey, police said Friday.

None of the notes the women left Thursday mentioned the suicides a day earlier in New Jersey, but Alsip Police Chief Warner Huston said he thought the two young women “had heard about it, and that the publicity surrounding that incident probably gave them the impetus” to kill themselves.

Nancy Grannan, 19, and Karen Logan, 17, described as best friends, had been neighbors and classmates. Both had dropped out of school and recently quit their jobs at restaurants, authorities said.

The notes indicated the women had been depressed, Grannan over her failed marriage and Logan over concern that “she had disappointed her parents,” Huston said.

Bodies in Garage

The bodies were found Thursday in the front seat of Grannan’s car in the Logan garage, Huston said. Gas fumes had entered the home and killed two cats and a dog.

The four New Jersey teen-agers died Wednesday after locking themselves in an idling car in a Bergenfield apartment complex garage, authorities said.

Wakes were held Friday for three of those victims, Thomas Olton, 19, and Lisa and Cheryl Burress, 16 and 18, but the families planned separate burials, despite their children’s last request that they be interred together.

Police and school officials expressed relief at the decision, saying joint services might have inflamed emotions in Bergenfield.

Funerals for Olton and the Burresses were scheduled for this morning. No arrangements were announced for the fourth youth, Thomas Rizzo, 19.