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State Police To Help Investigate Fayette County Jail Deaths

By Stephanie Wiechmann, IPR News | Published on in Crime, Local News

The Indiana State Police are investigating two deaths at the Fayette County Jail this week that the county sheriff believes came from an inmate smuggling something into the facility.

Late Monday night, jail staff took custody of a Connersville man – 37-year-old Chad Sizemore – that had been arrested in Wayne County on a warrant for a probation violation.  Once at the jail, Sizemore was put into a holding cell with two other men – 30-year-old Thomas Lohr and 26-year-old Weslee Jenkins.

Around midnight, Fayette County Sheriff Joey Laughlin says jail staff found the three men not conscious and not moving.  They were taken to the hospital, where he says Sizemore and Lohr were pronounced dead.  The third inmate, Jenkins, is expected to survive.

Laughlin says he believes the three died from taking a foreign substance that was smuggled into the jail.  He says toxicology tests are being run to learn what killed the two inmates.