From staff reports
CARTHAGE, Mo. —
Matthew D. Laurin hanged himself today at the Jasper County Jail.
Laurin, 20, of Springfield, is believed to have taken his own life sometime around noon in his cell at the jail in Carthage.
A jail detention officer discovered him hanging in the cell at 12:47 p.m. Sheriff Archie Dunn said Laurin used a bed sheet wrapped around the grating in the air-conditioning duct on a wall of his cell.
Jail staff got his body down, attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and called emergency medical technicians for assistance, Dunn said. But they could not resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead at the scene without being taken to a hospital, he said.
The death comes one day after Laurin pleaded guilty in the 2008 murders of Robert and Ellen Sheldon, of rural Carthage, and received two life terms without any chance of parole. The change of plea was made in accordance with a plea bargain with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office that took the death penalty off the table.
Dunn said there is video surveillance of the pod of cells where Laurin was being held and no foul play is suspected. He said Laurin had given no indication of being suicidal and was not under a suicide watch by jail staff.
“I do know that shortly before 9 o’clock today, he was talking to our counselor and was asked the question: ‘Are you contemplating suicide?,’ and he said, ‘No,’” Dunn said.
The sheriff has called a news conference at the jail for 6 p.m. to answer questions about the death.
