A New Jersey woman who worked multiple jobs to support herself died Monday while snatching a few minutes of sleep in her car. 
 
 Maria Fernandes, 32, succumbed to a deadly combination of carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gas container that she kept in her 2001 Kia Sportage, cops say. 
 
 The woman worked shifts at Dunkin' Donuts shops in Harrison, Newark and Linden. 
 
 “She used to work like three shifts every day,” Parth Patel, who worked with Fernandes at Newark Penn Station, told NJ.com. “Sometimes she wouldn’t sleep for five days.” 
 
 One of her managers, Sophia Paches, said that Fernandes had been an excellent employee during her four years at the Linden store. The woman would sometimes finish an overnight shift at 6 a.m., sleep in her car for a few hours, and then move on to her next shift. 
 
 Despite the grueling schedule, Monday was the first time Fernandes missed a day of work. 
 
 The woman had pulled into a Wawa parking lot on Route 1 & 9 in Elizabeth at about 8:30 a.m. She apparently left the car running, cops said. She was found dead about eight hours later. 
 
 A Hazmat team had to monitor the fumes for four hours before it became safe enough for rescuers to enter the Kia. 
 
 "This sounds like someone who tried desperately to work and make ends meet, and met with a tragic accident," Elizabeth police Lt. Daniel Saulnier said. 
 
 Former boyfriend Richard Culhane said Fernandes was born in Massachusetts, but returned to her parents’ native Portugal when she was about 9 years old. She moved back to the U.S. some 14 years ago, taking classes at a Harrison school and bunking with a family friend. 
 
 "I told (her) she could get a better job, but she said she didn't want to work in an office," Culhane said. 
 
 Friends and co-workers remembered Fernandes as a “sweet” and “hardworking” person who was always ready to lend a hand to people and animals in need. 
 
 One coworker remembered how Fernandes would save food scaps to feed to the birds after work. 
 
 She also idolized Michael Jackson, singing his songs and attempting his dance moves during her shifts. She told friends she planned to take the entire day off Aug. 29 to celebrate the pop star’s birthday. 
 
 An exact cause of death has not yet been released. 
 
 “She was just a nice human being,” Patel said. “She was everywhere, she used to do everything. And the good thing was, she never called out.” ||||| ELIZABETH — Maria Fernandes worked four jobs, including shifts at two different Dunkin Donuts. 
 
 Often she drove from job to job, stopping along the road to catch a couple hours sleep, police said. She kept a container of gasoline in her 2001 Kia Sportage because occasionally she ran out of gas, authorities said. 
 
 Early Monday, the 32-year-old Newark woman pulled into a lot off Route 1 & 9 in Elizabeth for a nap. She apparently left the car running and was overcome by carbon monoxide mixed with fumes from the gas can that had overturned, police said. Fernandes was found dead in the car about eight hours later. 
 
 "This sounds like someone who tried desperately to work and make ends meet, and met with a tragic accident," Elizabeth police Lt. Daniel Saulnier said. 
 
 An autopsy today failed to determine the cause of death, and police are awaiting results of toxicology tests, Saulnier said. He said no foul play is suspected. 
 
 At 3:51 p.m., city EMTs responded a 911 call of a woman found in a vehicle in a corner of the WAWA convenience store on the northbound side of Routes 1 & 9. Emergency workers found all the windows and doors on the vehicle closed and when they got inside, they were hit with a chemical odor, authorities said. 
 
 After determining the woman in the vehicle, later identified as Fernandes, was dead, the emergency responders called in Union County's Hazmat workers. 
 
 City police and firefighters, and staff from the county medical examiner's office, waited four hours while Hazmat members monitored the levels of the odors until they determined it was safe for others to enter the Kia, authorities said. 
 
 New Jersey has tens of thousands of people working multiple jobs, said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. 
 
 "These are are folks who would like to work full-time but they can't find the jobs," Van Horn said. "They wind up in these circumstances in which they are exhausted. More commonly it creates just an enormous amount of stress," he said. 
 
 Many people have been forced to work two or three part time jobs after losing a full-time position in the recession of 2008. 
 
 The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7.5 million people nationwide are working more than one job, Van Horn said, and those jobs still leave people with less income than their full-time work. 
 
 "The average person who lost their job took a 10 percent pay cut (after returning to the workforce)," Van Horn said. 
 
 Elizabeth police reached Fernandes's sister in Portugal this afternoon, Saulnier. They were still seeking a brother, who is an over-the-road trucker and out-of-state, the lieutenant said. 
 
 Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter NJ.com on Facebook. Stay up-to-the-minute with the latest Union County news by bookmarking nj.com/union. 
 
 ||||| ELIZABETH — Maria Fernandes carved out her own lifestyle, working at Dunkin Donuts shops in Harrison, Newark and Linden, often sleeping in her car between work shifts. She never earned much, but she always had money to give others, friends said today. 
 
 "She helped me out when I was going through some tough times. She gave me money," said Bruce Jirinec of Linden, who often hung out with Fernandes when she worked the overnight shift at Dunkin Donuts in Linden. 
 
 Late Tuesday night, after hearing that the 32-year-old Fernandes had died while sleeping in her 2001 Kia Sportage in a parking lot in Elizabeth, Jirinec and a friend etched a chalk memorial to her in a parking space just outside the front door of the shop. Manager Sophia Paches blocked off the parking space to preserve the drawings. 
 
 "It's so sad. Nobody here can believe it," Paches said. She said Fernandes sometimes finished work at 6 a.m. and would sleep a couple hours in her car in the parking lot outside the Wood Avenue shop before going to a shift at another store. 
 
 On Monday, Fernandes pulled into a Wawa parking lot behind an AutoZone store off Routes 1 & 9 in Elizabeth about 8:30 a.m. and went to sleep. She was found dead in the 2001 Kia Sportage about eight hours later, overcome by fumes, police said. 
 
 Fernandes had the Sportage less than a year, and the vehicle was often in for repairs, according to her longtime friend and former boyfriend, Richard Culhane. He said a mechanic who repaired the engine earlier this month had discovered a problem in an exhaust valve. 
 
 Culhane said he met Fernandes over the internet and the two were close for about three years, with Fernandes even helping to care for Culhane's three children. 
 
 "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have custody of my kids," he said, referring to difficulties he had with the children's mother. 
 
 Culhane and others spoke of Fernandes' generous acts, such as the time she gave a homeless person a tent and sleeping bag. 
 
 Armando Gonzalez, who worked with Fernandes in the Harrison Dunkin Donuts, recalled how Fernandes would scoop up any food that fell, and save it to feed the birds after work. She did the same thing with leftover bagels from the Linden store, Paches said. 
 
 Despite her long work hours, Fernandes cared for a dog and three cats, stray animals that she took in as her own, Culhane said. 
 
 Each June, Fernandes scraped the money together for a week-long trip to California, to attend a festival of her favorite musical artist, Michael Jackson. 
 
 Culhane said Fernandes was born in Massachusetts. Her parents were from Portugal, and they returned there when Fernandes was about 9. She came back to the United States about 14 years ago, staying in the home of a family friend and attending school in Harrison, Culhane said. 
 
 He said Fernandes spoke four languages and was learning a fifth. "I told she could get a better job, but she said she didn't want to work in an office," he recalled. 
 
 Fernandes had worked at the Linden Dunkin Donuts for four years, and used buses and trains to get around before getting the car. Regardless of the weather, she always came to work. Sometimes she called to say she would be late, Paches recalled. 
 
 Paches said Monday was the first night Fernandes did not come into work, and did not answer calls to her phone.
– Maria Fernandes pulled into a Wawa parking lot Monday morning to take a nap between jobs—the 32-year-old Newark, NJ, woman had four of them—but she left her car running as she slept. Eight hours later, she was found dead in the car, apparently overwhelmed by carbon monoxide and fumes from a gas can that had overturned, police say. Fernandes, who sometimes finished an overnight shift at 6am and napped in her car before heading to her next shift, kept the gas in her car because she sometimes ran out. She had been saving money, a co-worker says, and had just recently purchased the Kia Sportage in which she died. Before that, she got from job to job via buses and trains, the Star-Ledger reports. Monday was the first day of work she'd ever missed, the New York Daily News reports. "This sounds like someone who tried desperately to work and make ends meet, and met with a tragic accident," a police lieutenant tells the Star-Ledger. A co-worker agrees, telling the paper, "She used to work like three shifts every day. Sometimes she wouldn't sleep for five days." Authorities were called to the scene at 3:51pm after someone noticed Fernandes in the car, and when emergency workers got inside—all the windows and doors had been closed—they noticed a chemical odor. Though Fernandes' official cause of death has yet to be determined, police do not suspect foul play. (Last year, a teen whose brother left her sleeping in a car before school also died tragically.)