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The weekend death of an inmate at the Box Elder County Jail is being investigated as an apparent suicide.
The Box Elder County Sheriff's Office confirmed Monday that Christopher Witt, 42, of Layton, was found by staff about 4 p.m. Sunday, hanging in a shower area near his cell, which was located in the jail's medical unit.
A jailer monitoring cameras had seen Witt standing in his cell less than 15 minutes prior to his being discovered in the shower. The shower area does not have camera coverage, the sheriff's office noted.
Deputies took Witt down, began CPR and rushed him by ambulance to Brigham City Community Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Witt had been in jail since his Friday arrest near Perry by the Utah Highway Patrol. He had been booked on suspicion of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, as well as failure to appear for an earlier 2nd District Court appearance.
While the cause of death initially appears to be a suicide, an official determination awaits results of an autopsy and the Box Elder County Multiagency Critical Incident Investigation Team's inquiries.
The jail's last death by suicide was in 2009, the sheriff's office stated.
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