NEWS

February 18, 2008
Fort Madison inmate commits suicide

An inmate serving a life prison sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary apparently committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet.

Ryan Wichhart’s body was found about 1:15 a.m. Sunday.

He was alive and showing no signs of unusual behavior during a check about a-half hour earlier, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Wichhart, 21, of North Liberty, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2006. He was convicted of strangling Kathi Mertens, a drug treatment worker at the Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services center in Burlington in 2005.

Wichhart’s death is under investigation by an internal affairs unit. An official cause of death was not being released pending the results of an autopsy.

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