A 16-year-old Arkansas boy suspected in the fatal stabbing of another
teen died over the weekend after workers at a juvenile detention center
found him hanging from a bedsheet, a sheriff said Monday.
The death of the 16-year-old is being investigated as a suicide, said
Steve Jeffery, sheriff in Independence County in northeast Arkansas.
The teen's name has not been released because he was a minor.
Jeffery said the teen was being held on a murder charge in
the death of 18-year-old Nicholas Zurosky. Police said Zurosky was a
suspect himself in the shooting death of another 18-year-old, Lisa
Steele, before he turned up dead last week in Paragould, about 150 miles
northeast of Little Rock.
The relationship between the three teens wasn't clear. Zurosky and
Steele were found dead within a week at the home where Zurosky lived in
Paragould. A police report listed a different address in Paragould for
Steele, who died July 6.
Zurosky was found stabbed to death on Thursday, Paragould police
said. Then on Friday, police announced they had four people in custody,
including the 16-year-old, in connection with Zurosky's death. That same
night, about 90 miles away in Batesville, workers at the juvenile
detention center found the 16-year-old hanging in his cell.
The teen was taken to a local hospital and then flown to Little Rock, where he was pronounced dead early Saturday.
Jeffery said he didn't know whether anyone else was in the teen's cell at the detention center.
"These young people in our facility have many varied problems in
their lives and it is sad for someone to think this is the only way out
of their problems," Peggy Kendrick, the detention center's administrator
said in a statement.
The other three suspects were being held on hindering apprehension
charges, police said last week. They were expected to go before a judge
this week.
Prosecutor Scott Ellington said the 16-year-old who died was slated to be brought to court Monday.
