By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — A former stepfather of a 21-year-old Carthage man contacted the Globe on Monday to inquire about the possibility that the former stepson had died of an apparent suicide over the weekend while he was an inmate at the Jasper County Jail in Carthage.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department had released no information about an inmate’s death by midafternoon Monday, and the newspaper’s efforts to reach the department’s public information officer and her supervisors to confirm the matter were initially unsuccessful.

Jasper County Coroner Jerry Neil confirmed that a death had taken place at the jail, but he referred all questions about the matter to the Sheriff’s Department. Neil would not provide the name of the decedent or reveal the cause and manner of death.

The Globe later reached Sheriff Archie Dunn after office hours regarding the matter. Dunn told the Globe that no information was released because he did not think the media reported suicides. He told the Globe that any information, including the name of the inmate, would have to come from one of two sheriff’s captains today.

The Globe spoke with Kevin Evans, the former stepfather who lives in Texas, for a second time Monday night, and Evans said a sergeant with the Sheriff’s Department had contacted him since he first spoke with the newspaper. He said the sergeant told him that his former stepson died of an apparent suicide by hanging about 12:20 p.m. Sunday.

Evans said the sergeant told him that a cellmate got out of the jail about that time, and that his former stepson took cloth either from his jail uniform or from his bedding, and used it to hang himself.

Further information was unavailable.