Wausau woman among three local jail inmates to die in December

Karen Madden
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
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WISCONSIN RAPIDS - A 28-year-old Wausau woman being held in the Wood County Jail before Christmas died of an apparent suicide, according to officials.

She was among three inmates from Central Wisconsin jails to die in a two-week period. 

The woman apparently hanged herself in the shower after corrections officers had taken her there on Dec. 22, said Capt. Theodore Ashbeck, Wood County Jail administrator. She was taken by ambulance to Aspirus Riverview Hospital then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital, where she died Dec. 29. 

The woman had been brought into the jail Dec. 8 to serve a 45-day jail sentence on a misdemeanor retail theft case. When officers searched the woman, she fought with them, according to court documents. The officers found drugs while searching the woman and she was charged with narcotic drug possession and two counts of battery to a corrections officer, according to court records. 

RELATED: Officials investigating Wood County jail death

RELATED: 35-year-old inmate dies Saturday in Adams County Jail

Four days after the Wausau woman was found in the shower, a 35-year-old Wisconsin Rapids man also died from an apparent suicide in the Wood County Jail. The man also apparently hung himself, Ashbeck said. 

The Wood County Sheriff's Department, which oversees the jail, is investigating the two deaths, Ashbeck said. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has requested information from the jail regarding procedures but is not investigating, Ashbeck said.

There doesn't appear to be a connection between the two suicides. 

On Dec. 16, a 35-year-old Wisconsin Dells man was found unresponsive in a cell at the Adams County Jail, according to that county's Sheriff's Department. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials have not released further information on the man's death.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin avoids naming suicide victims in most circumstances and also is withholding the Adams County inmate's name because no cause of death has been released.