Miners left notes to loved ones

Some of the 12 coal miners who died following an explosion in West Virginia left notes behind assuring family members that their final hours trapped underground were not spent in agony, a relative said today.

“The notes said they weren’t suffering, they were just going to sleep,” said Peggy Cohen, who had been called to a makeshift morgue at a school to identify the body of her father, 59-year-old mining machine operator Fred Ware.