ATLANTA — A 20-year-old maintenance worker who this week pleaded guilty to killing a seven-year-old girl died as a result of “ligature hanging,” the GBI confirmed on Friday.
Ryan Brunn, 20, who faced life in prison, “hanged himself with his sweat-shirt,” the investigative agency said in a statement. Brunn earlier this week pleaded guilty to killing Jorelys Rivera in Canton in December.
“The ongoing investigation by agents from the GBI’s Milledgeville Regional Office has not uncovered any evidence to indicate Brunn’s death was anything other than a suicide,” the agency said. “The GBI Agent involved in the investigation and a Department of Corrections Investigator attended the autopsy and conferred with the Medical Examiner on their investigative findings. The Medical Examiner found no other significant trauma on Brunn’s body.”
Reports indicate that Brunn was on suicide watch while in the Cherokee County Jail, but not at the state prison in Jackson.
“He was interviewed by mental health staff on Wednesday and was not placed on suicide watch based on the counselor’s findings,” WXIA-TV/11 Alive quoted a Georgia Department of Corrections spokesperson as saying. “He was placed in a segregation cell by himself for his safety,”
The full GBI statement:
Decatur, GA – The results of the autopsy today on Ryan Brunn have determined the cause of death as ligature hanging and the manner of death as suicide.
The ongoing investigation by agents from the GBI’s Milledgeville Regional Office has not uncovered any evidence to indicate Brunn’s death was anything other than a suicide. The GBI Agent involved in the investigation and a Department of Corrections Investigator attended the autopsy and conferred with the Medical Examiner on their investigative findings. The Medical Examiner found no other significant trauma on Brunn’s body.
The investigation revealed that Brunn hanged himself with his sweat-shirt.