An inmate in the Box Elder County jail died Monday, and the preliminary investigation indicated that the death was a suicide, according to police.
The inmate, 49-year-old Jed Collatz, was booked into the jail for investigation of aggravated assault and criminal mischief, according to court documents. His bail was set at $5,000.
Monday at about 11:15 a.m., jail deputies found Collatz in “cardiac distress,” according to a news release from the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office. He was alone in a locked cell. First responders attempted to treat Collatz, but he died at the jail.
The Northern Utah Critical Investigative Team is investigating Collatz’s death.
He was one of two jail inmates who died in Utah on Monday — another man died in the Weber County jail. His name was Joey Conrad, and he was 42, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon. The office reported that he died by suicide.
“The staff were alerted by the inmates in the section who were on their time out,” Weber County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Joshua Marigoni said in an email about Conrad’s death. “They went to talk to this individual at their cell door and noticed that there was a problem. They notified staff members immediately. This was a period of time between security checks.”
The Weber County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate.
A third inmate died in another Utah jail earlier in February. Albert Stout, 60, was found dead in the Garfield County jail on Feb. 6. Officials there believe he died by suicide.
The Salt Lake Tribune previously reported that at least 31 of the 56 known deaths in Utah jails between 2014 and February 2017 were suicides. In 2014, Utah had the highest rate of county inmate deaths in the nation.
Follow @ScottDPierce