EAST MADISON — Somerset County Jail officials say it may be weeks before they can establish what killed an inmate in his cell this week.
An autopsy performed Wednesday on Joseph F. Daoust, who died at Somerset County Jail, was inconclusive, the jail administrator said Thursday.
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“After the autopsy yesterday there was no definitive cause, so that’s going to lead to additional tests,” Maj. Cory Swope of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department
said Thursday. “I would probably anticipate not hearing anything for the next couple weeks until we hear back from the M.E.’s office after toxicology reports that they’ll do.”
Daoust, 27, of Wilton, was being held on drug trafficking and criminal threatening charges from Franklin County, Swope said.
A corrections officer found Daoust unresponsive during a routine security check shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday. His body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, where the autopsy was performed.
Swope said the death is not considered suspicious and no foul play is suspected. He would not say if it appeared to be a suicide.
Corrections officers and medical staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Daoust, Swope said. Redington-Fairvew General Hospital EMS was dispatched from Skowhegan to the jail, where Daoust was pronounced dead, according to a police statement.
Daoust, who was a boarder from the Franklin County jail, was in a cell by himself because corrections officers had yet to determine his classification, medical condition, charges and security level required for placement in the general jail population.
He arrived at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison on May 16.
Swope said Daoust was being held on $10,000 bail as he awaited trial on three charges – two counts of aggravated trafficking in illegal drugs and criminal threatening with a firearm.
Swope said the crimes are alleged to have happened in Wilton.
According to Somerset County Jail protocol, Maine State Police detectives investigated the death. Reports will be submitted to the Department of Corrections.
Doug Harlow can be contacted at 612-2367 or at dharlow@centralmaine
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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