PORTLAND – On Monday, November 20, at approximately 8:00 a.m., the Jay County Sheriff notified and requested detectives with the Indiana State Police Fort Wayne Post to investigate the death of a Jay County jail inmate.
A detective from the Fort Wayne Post responded and assumed the investigation.
Preliminarily, the investigation has found that the deceased inmate, identified as Kevin Tyler Whitted, 33, of Muncie, Indiana, was being held at the Jay County jail in a padded cell and being monitored overhead with surveillance video by jail staff. There were no other inmates housed in the cell with Whitted.
At approximately 7:22 a.m. Monday morning, jail staff observed Whitted fall forward in the cell. The Jail nurse immediately went in and checked on him. The nurse instructed jail staff to call EMS. Jail staff performed CPR on the inmate until EMS personnel arrived. Whitted was transported by ambulance from the jail to the IU hospital in Portland where he was later pronounced dead.
Although not confirmed, it is suspected that Whitted may have experienced a medical condition related to withdrawal symptoms associated with a drug addiction.
The Jay County Coroner has scheduled an autopsy for Tuesday, November 21.
Family notifications have been made.
This remains an active death investigation by the Indiana State Police. At this time there is no further information to release.
