No illness seen in prisoner who died

Woman seen sleeping, then did not respond less than an hour later

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

A woman who died in a Morganton jail on Saturday showed no sign of illness when she was admitted that day, authorities said Monday.

Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman said the woman, 28-year-old Heather Renae Fredell, was in her cell, "sleeping and snoring," shortly after 6 p.m. when deputies checked on her.

But during a check less than an hour later, Fredell was unresponsive, Huffman said. Jailers tried to revive Fredell before an ambulance took her to Grace Hospital in Morganton, where she was pronounced dead.

Fredell was argumentative after she was brought in to the jail, Huffman said, so she was locked in a single-person, padded cell, which is standard procedure with intoxicated inmates, he said.

Huffman said he does not have enough information to say whether Fredell was intoxicated and that officials are waiting on the results of a toxicology report. Huffman is chairman of the Burke-Catawba jail, which serves both counties.

Fredell was taken into custody Saturday afternoon at a flea market in Morganton on a warrant for failing to appear in Burke County courts, said Morganton Department of Public Safety Capt. Mark Bradshaw.

During the arrest, Bradshaw said, an officer found a knife in Fredell's purse and she was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor.

Bradshaw said no force was used during the arrest and that the report did not indicate that Fredell had any visible medical problems.

Like all female suspects arrested in Burke and Catawba counties, Fredell was taken to the Burke-Catawba jail.

Fredell's death is the fourth death possibly connected to a jail run by the Catawba County sheriff in the past three years.

The State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the case, Huffman said.

More than 12,000 inmates in local, state and federal jails and prisons died while in custody between 2001 and 2004, according to a study released by the Department of Justice.


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