Donald Hawkins, the 78-year-old founder of Hawkins Motor Sales, and his 25-year-old grandson, Ridge Hitt, were found dead Friday at Hawkins's home in the 2000 block of Peterson Road in Hillsdale Township. Authorities say the deaths followed a suspected carbon monoxide incident, though an official cause has not yet been formally released.
Hillsdale County Sheriff's deputies and first responders were dispatched to the scene around noon Friday after receiving reports of a possible gas leak, according to WTVB. The station reported that Hawkins and Hitt died following the suspected carbon monoxide incident at the Peterson Road home, and that the official cause of death had not yet been formally released. MLive reported that police said the cause of death remains under investigation, and that the Hillsdale County Sheriff's Office has released no additional information while that investigation continues.
A Family Business Spanning Decades
Hawkins founded Hawkins Motor Sales in Hillsdale in 1979, according to his obituary posted by VanHorn-Eagle Funeral Home on Legacy.com. He went on to purchase Hawkins Chevy Olds in Hudson in 1985 before later moving that business back to Hillsdale, the obituary states. Hawkins Motor Sales remains a family-owned car dealership in Hillsdale, Michigan.
Hitt had spent the last eight years working alongside his grandfather, learning the family car business at Hawkins Motor Sales, per his own obituary from the same funeral home. According to the obituary, Hawkins was working with Hitt to prepare him for a role in the business. Hitt graduated from Western High School in 2019, the obituary notes.
Funeral Plans and Private Burial
The family will receive friends for visitation Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. and again from 5 to 8 p.m. at VanHorn-Eagle Funeral Home, located at 40 S. Manning St. in Hillsdale. A joint funeral service honoring both men is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, at Hillsdale United Brethren Church, with Pastor Chris Heydenburg officiating, the obituary says.
Private family interment will follow at a later date at Northlawn Cemetery in North Adams, Michigan, according to the funeral home's notice. No further details about the service have been released beyond those arrangements.
What Michigan Health Data Shows About CO Risk
Carbon monoxide poisoning tends to cluster in Michigan's coldest months, with almost half of reported cases occurring in December, January and February, according to data published by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The agency lists vehicles, furnaces or water heaters, and stoves or ovens as the most common sources of CO exposure statewide. The state relaunched its Carbon Monoxide Surveillance Program in 2023 after years without a dedicated annual report, per the department's 2023 surveillance findings.
Separately, county records show Hillsdale County logged 15 accidental deaths in 2023, three of which were classified by mechanism as asphyxia, according to data reviewed from the Hillsdale County accidental-death record. That figure does not specify underlying causes and does not establish that any of those deaths involved carbon monoxide. The investigation into what happened at the Peterson Road home remains ongoing, and authorities have not released further information.
