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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">JP/Jerry AdigunaIndonesia has lost one of its rising fashion stars after the death in Bandung on Sunday of designer Ade Candra Kirana Sagi, popularly known as Adesagi Kierana.

Adesagi, 34, was found dead along with his close friend Randy Yan Putra, 31, apparently due to gas poisoning from a faulty water heater.

According to their friends and colleagues, Adesagi and Randy were spending the New Year’s weekend at a house on Jl. Cimandiri, directly behind Gedung Sate, the West Java Governor’s office, in Bandung.

Adesagi was renowned for his dynamic and innovative use of color in his designs.

The death of the two men was reported to the police by the house’s owners at 4 p.m. on Sunday. The police found them in an embrace in the bathroom.

Bandung Police spokesman Comr. Endang Sri Wahyu said on Monday that the police had interrogated two men who were sons of the owners of the house and friends of the victims. The two, assisted by another unidentified friend, forced their way into the bathroom after learning that the victims had not come out since early on Sunday.

“Preliminary results from the forensic examination show the two died from carbon monoxide poisoning from the water heater in the bathroom as there was no sign of violence on the two bodies,” Endang said.

She said that the police had confiscated a 12-kilogram gas canister for examination.

When asked for confirmation on the cause of the deaths, head of the forensic team at Hasan Sadikin Hospital Noorman Heryadi said his team had not carried out an autopsy because the police did not receive permission from the victims’ families to do so.

“We just examined them physically so it was difficult to determine the cause of death. If I am asked to make a comment, its interpretation could be open to doubt because I didn’t examine the internal organs,” Noorman said.

But, according to Noorman, theoretically gas poisoning could possibly have occurred as the gas was colorless and odorless, but deadly.

The two bodies were later transferred from the hospital’s mortuary at 3 a.m. on Monday to Bekasi and Jakarta.

Endang said that the police would continue examining the case even though their families did not want them to.

“The families have asked us to stop the investigation, but the police are obliged to uncover the cause of the death. Who knows? Maybe there was some sort of negligence involved,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Bandung Police are also investigating the death of Andri, a student of Bandung-based Indonesian Education University, who died after allegedly being stabbed by members of a motorcycle gang near Rumah Mode factory outlet on Jl. Setiabudi on Sunday morning.

Andri was believed to have been beaten to death after initially being stabbed in the chest.

At the time of the incident, his belongings were left untouched, including a Honda Vario motorcycle, mobile phone and wallet.