Suicide at Delaware County jail investigated

MUNCIE - Authorities are investigating the apparent suicide of an inmate at the Delaware County jail on Friday.

Ashley Lee Myers, 31, was reportedly found hanging in a cell in the jail's intake area. He was later pronounced dead at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

"I don't know what he used as a ligature," Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn said Saturday morning. "We picked (the case) up at the hospital."

The coroner said an autopsy was being conducted Saturday. Resuscitation efforts were made by jail staffers, and continued until the Muncie man was pronounced dead, Hahn said.

Myers was the only person in the cell when he was discovered hanging, authorities said. An ambulance was called to the jail about 4:45 p.m. Friday.

Delaware County Sheriff Mike Scroggins said the death was under investigation, adding he couldn't speculate on how long Myers might have been unobserved in the holding cell.

Surveillance video will likely be a factor in the investigation, the sheriff said. The jail, which opened in the early 1990s, has seen three previous inmate suicides - two in 2004, and one in 2009.

Records reflect Myers was booked into the jail at 1:22 p.m. Friday.

Scroggins said the Muncie man - wanted on warrants stemming from a child-support case - apparently fled from officers on the city's northeast side on Friday, resulting in a brief car chase that saw a sheriff's vehicle slightly damaged.

Myers then allegedly fled on foot and was captured in the 2700 block of Granville Avenue.

He was preliminarily charged with theft, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and reckless possession of paraphernalia, and was being held in the jail under a $16,500 bond.

Myers was arrested in February 2011 after he allegedly spit in a woman's face during an argument. Related charges of intimidation and battery by body waste were dismissed in January 2013.

He was convicted of conversion in December 2013.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.