Mitch McCoy and Kayla Shepperd
7 minutes ago
St. CLAIR, Mo. – An investigation is underway after a man was found dead at a county jail hours after a car crash.
The police department of St. Clair in Missouri responded to several 911 calls Friday night about a car weaving in and out of both lanes of traffic on Interstate 44. Officers said they found a crashed car at the wood line, not far away from the interstate.
“During this investigation, they found that the driver was under the influence of some type of intoxicant,” said Chief Michael Wirt of the St. Louis Police Department. Clair.
An arrest report showed Christopher Cox, 43, of Lebanon, Mo., was arrested Friday at 10:41 p.m.
Wirt said that while at the scene, EMS cleared Cox, but officers still took him to Mercy Hospital before going to jail.
“Anytime someone is intoxicated or appears to be at a higher level of intoxication, more so than a normal person would be,” Wirt said. “We take them to the hospital to be in confinement conditions.”
Officers then transported Cox to the Franklin County Jail shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday.
He was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving a vehicle carelessly and recklessly, causing an accident and driving while suspended.
Franklin County Sheriff Steve Pelton wrote on the department’s Facebook page that while deputies were delivering lunch around 12:25 a.m. Saturday, they found Cox unresponsive and immediately began CPR. About 37 minutes later, the 43-year-old man was pronounced dead.
“There is currently nothing obvious as to the cause of death,” Pelton said on Facebook.
The body was taken to the St. Louis County Coroner’s Office. Louis.
Pelton did not respond to FOX 2’s request for an interview.
A spokesperson for Hospital de la Mercè issued the following statement:
“Our sympathies go out to the Cox family, and our prayers are with them. We will continue to work with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department as they investigate this tragic situation. Due to patient privacy laws, we are unable to address any details of patient care”.
