BLOOMFIELD – An Indiana State Police investigation has ruled the July death of Greene County Jail inmate Jack “JJ” Farmer Jr. a suicide.
A jailer found the 43-year-old Framer, of Bloomington, unconscious and with a metal cable telephone cord wrapped around his neck on July 23, almost two weeks after Farmer had been arrested on theft and burglary charges.
Jail staff with assistance from the Bloomfield Police Department attempted life-saving measures which included CPR.
EMS was contacted and Farmer was transported to Greene County General Hospital. He was then transferred to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, where he died after a week on life support.
Following the death of Farmer, the Indiana State Police has accepted the role of lead investigating agency per the request of Greene County Sheriff George Dallaire.
A week before Farmer was found unresponsive at the jail, He had severed a portion of his finger by repeatedly slamming a jail bathroom door shut on it.
After that incident, Farmer was put on a suicide watch and was unattended for an hour of recreation time when the suicide attempt happened, the Indiana State Police review concluded.
Video footage from the dayroom showed that at 5:30 p.m. on July 23, Farmer partially concealed himself behind a blanket and wrapped the cord around his neck. Investigators say Farmer positioned himself in a way that tightened the cord around his neck causing him to become unconscious.
Twenty minutes later, a jailer entered the room, removed the cord, laid Farmer on the floor, and began CPR.
Emergency medical personnel arrived in eight minutes and took Farmer to the hospital.
