Crime & Safety
Dead Kane County Jail Inmate Had Threatened Suicide in Past
Authorities say the woman died Friday of asphyxiation by hanging.
A woman who died Friday evening after a corrections officer found her hanged and unresponsive in her cell at the Kane County Jail in St. Charles had threatened suicide more than a year ago, The Courier-News reports.
Terry A. Hart, 52, of the 600 block of Woodland Drive, South Elgin, was in jail awaiting an Oct. 3, 2013 sentencing on an Aug. 13, 2013 aggravated battery conviction, when an officer at the jail found her during a routine check about 1:45 p.m. Friday, according to a Kane County Chronicle weekend story.
Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez told the Chronicle that officers performed CPR on Hart until an ambulance took her to Delnor Hospital in Geneva. She was pronounced dead at the hospital just after 5 p.m.
Hart’s death is being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office and the Kane County Coroner’s Office, which performed an autopsy Friday night that determined the cause of death.
Find out what's happening in Bataviawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
But The Courier-News reported Monday that South Elgin police indicated officers were called to Hart’s home on Oct. 26, 2012, after a report of a suicidal person who was threatening others. During that incident, she did threaten to spit at, kick or bite police, actually kicking one officer in the groin and attempting to bite another.
That led to the aggravated battery and aggravated assault on a peace officer charges for which she was convicted in August. She had been held in the jail since July 31.
