The Indiana State Police are investigating after an inmate was found dead in her cell at the St. Joseph County Jail Thursday morning.
ISP has identified the inmate as 49-year-old Christine Dezenzo of Elkhart, who was booked into the jail Wednesday afternoon.
According to a press release, jail staff found the female inmate alone and unresponsive in her cell in the jail’s medical unit at around 8:30 Thursday morning. Jail staff provided medical attention until paramedics arrived, but she was pronounced dead at the jail.
An autopsy is scheduled to be completed Friday at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker School of Medicine in Kalamazoo.
This is the second inmate death at the jail this year. Two inmates died in 2021, and one of those deaths was later ruled a homicide.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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