The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Friday’s apparent suicide of Timothy Radke while in custody in the Jefferson County Jail.
The 34-year-old Radke was found hanging from a sheet in a shower stall about 1:30 p.m. Friday. A deputy discovered him during a walk-through of the minimum-security housing area and began resuscitation.
Radke was taken to Lutheran Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 3:55 a.m. Saturday.
Radke was arrested Oct. 9 by Lakewood police on charges of second-degree burglary, felony theft and giving false information.
He had been on suicide watch earlier in his pretrial confinement. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said Monday that she could not disclose why or when Radke had been removed from suicide watch because, “It is pertinent to the investigation.”
“I’ve got to find out,” Mike Radke said Monday of questions about his son’s death.
Four inmates committed suicide last year in the Jefferson County Jail.
A jail suicide expert did an audit on the jail and offered ideas such as a better system of identifying and monitoring inmates considered at suicide risk.
Radke’s death “will be looked at closely so we can scrutinize the way we’re doing things to see if anything could be done,” Kelley said.
