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   Officials at an eastern Missouri jail say a detainee used a blanket to hang himself.

   The Park Hills Daily Journal reports that 71-year-old Earl Tripp of Fredericktown died Wednesday afternoon at the Madison County Jail in Fredericktown. A jailer found Tripp in his cell, hanging without a pulse. No other inmates were in the cell.

   Sheriff Bobby Spain says Tripp was not considered a suicide risk. He was being held on several sodomy counts.

   The Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating. An autopsy is planned.

 

A horrifying night for a south city couple after they find their two-year-old son hanging from a window blind cord. 

Investigators say the toddler died after he climbed up into the windows of his bedroom in their home off Water Street in south city and got tangled up in a long nylon cord from the window blinds.

The boy’s mother found him hanging several feet off the ground with the cord around his neck. Police do not know how long the child had been there. 

Police say the husband tried to perform CPR until EMS crews arrived. The toddler was pronounced dead at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center. This happened Monday night around 7:45.

The parents were not taken into custody. Police are calling it a tragic accident.

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A 55-year-old Maryville, Illinois man hanged himself Thursday morning in his cell at Madison County Jail. Madison County Sheriff Robert Hertz says jail staff found the man at approximately 5:30 a.m. He'd hanged himself using personal undergarments.

Hertz said the inmate had been jailed since August 24, 2011 on the following criminal charges: aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated unlawful restraint, solicitation to commit home invasion, solicitation to commit aggravated kidnapping, solicitation to commit residential burglary, and unlawful possession of contraband in a penal institution (for making homemade weapons at the county jail).

The solicitation and contraband charges were filed against the inmate Wednesday after detectives learned he was planning to attack the woman he allegedly sexually assaulted in August 2011. Guards at the county jail administered emergency medical treatment until Edwardsville Fire Department Emergency Medical Services arrived and determined the inmate had died. Per sheriff's office protocol, the Madison County Coroner's Office, Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections were notified of the suicide and are conducting a joint investigation.

The inmate's name is not being released.