Traverse City —
An Elk Rapids woman accused of slaying her teenage son turned off a jailhouse TV, returned to her cell and hanged herself from a bed sheet, authorities said.
Antrim County corrections officers found Anne Avery-Miller, 39, hanging from a bed sheet inside her jail cell just before 11 p.m. Monday. She died Tuesday at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City.
Authorities in November charged Avery-Miller with an open count of murder in the 2007 slaying of her son. She told police Sam Avery, 16, committed suicide. Sam Avery was shot in the back of the head in an upstairs bedroom in the Elk Rapids home where he lived with Avery-Miller and his young sister.
Three corrections officers checked on Avery-Miller at 10:22 p.m. as she prepared for bed, said Sheriff Dan Bean. Bean could not determine how long she hanged from her jail cell, but said she must have attempted to kill herself shortly after corrections officers checked on her.
Officers who found her cut the bedsheet with a pocket knife.
“When they cut her down, she was unconscious,” Bean said.
An ambulance arrived a few minutes later and took her to Kalkaska Memorial Hospital, then to Munson, where she later died.
Avery-Miller was placed on suicide watch last year when she entered the Antrim County Jail, but was not deemed suicidal after an evaluation and returned to a general population jail cell, Bean said.
“She kind of resented the fact that she was being watched,” said Carl Marlinga, Avery-Miller’s attorney. “That’s another reason that I’m surprised and perplexed as to how it could happen. We were assured that she was being watched.”
The sheriff’s department plans to conduct an internal investigation. Michigan State Police in Kalkaska also continue to investigate.
Avery-Miller showed no signs of suicidal behavior prior to the hanging, Bean said. She underwent a psychiatric evaluation in March to determine whether she was competent to stand trial, but the results are not yet available, said Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop.
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Ann Avery Miller
Murder suspect Avery-Miller commits suicide
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