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By Miriam Raftery
January 3, 2020 (San Diego) – Don Ralph, 52, was found unresponsive on October 26 by deputies doing a security check at the San Diego Central Jail. Deputies found a sock lodged in his throat, removed it and performed first aid until relieved by paramedics, but despite lifesaving efforts, Ralph was declared dead a half hour later at 4:05 a.m.
Ralph shared a cell with another inmate, however the Sheriff’s department concluded there was no preliminary evidence of foul play.
Now the Medical Examiner has concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia due to occlusion of Ralph’s air way with the sock, and determined that the manner of death was suicide.
Suicide by suffocation with a sock is not unheard of. In 2015, a Mexican immigrant with a history of suicide attempts reportedly killed himself in an ICE detention facility by stuffing a sock in his throat, NPR reported. A British student high on drugs was founded to have killed himself in the same manner, according to Huffington Post. In 2018, a Riker’s island inmate in a cell by himself died of a sock stuffed in his throat, which was ruled a suicide, the New York Daily News reported.
However, a 1984 Veterans Administration patient death was ruled suicide, but the family later came to suspect murder after new evidence revealed a fellow veteran had been overheard by a staffer threatening to stuff a sock down the patient’s throat and kill him if he snored again. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the staffer was pressured to keep quiet.
Ralph was the 14th inmate to die in custody in San Diego County last year, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He had been in custody for 45 days after his return from a state hospital for a court hearing on a charge of battery with serious bodily injury, says Lt. Michael Bevins.
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