The Atascosa County Sheriff’s Department in Jourdanton, Texas, filed the custodial death report (CDR) for Nancy Crystal Lopez on May 19, 2023. She died in Atoscosa County Jail on May 5, 2023, about 56 hours after her arrival. The CDR says the toxicology report is still pending, but the autopsy was completed. Under Medical Cause of Death, among other details, the report shows Ms. Lopez “had a severely enlarged liver.” It further says, “If no history of seizure, then most likely it was a seizure-induced from alcohol detox.”

Many online news articles refer to jail withdrawal deaths. Although withdrawal deaths seem to be occurring more frequently, they are nothing new. The following is a story about a man who died in a county jail outside Texas in 2015.

An Autopsy Shows that a County Jail Inmate Died of the Effects of Heroin Withdrawal

When a man was arrested and placed in a county jail outside Texas, his family intentionally didn’t pay the $300 bond. They chose to get him detoxed in the jail, and the plan was to put him in a rehab program afterward. But they were wrong in thinking jail was a safe place to detox.

The man was a welder who got hurt on the job. He became addicted to opioid painkillers, but when prescriptions ran out, he turned to heroin and was addicted to it.

When he was placed in jail, his symptoms of withdrawal were evident, but they didn’t take him to a doctor. Knowing that one of the most serious effects of withdrawal is dehydration, the nurses administered Gatorade. He was unable to keep it down, however. A video shows him begging for an IV, but they denied that request.

Learn more about this story in this continuing series, plus see Part 1.

Helping Texas jail detainees and their families with resources is one of the purposes of this website. There is no intention of suggesting that people or organizations have been involved in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor