Monroe inmate found dead, an apparent suicide

Herald staff

MONROE — A 46-year-old inmate at the Monroe Reformatory died Thursday in an apparent suicide.

The man was in his cell and had been checked about 1 p.m. by corrections officers, prison spokesman Lt. Larry Conner said. The officers made a final check about 1:20 p.m. before shift change and found the man hanging by a strip of bed sheet from a metal ceiling conduit, Conner said.

Efforts to revive him failed. The man was pronounced dead at 1:50 p.m.

Officers found no suicide note or anything to explain his death, Conner said. Other inmates hadn’t noticed anything unusual in his behavior, he said.

The man had been at the prison since 1991 after having been in several prisons around the state on a first-degree assault conviction from Mason County, Conner said.