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Woman Found Dead in OKC Jail

Oklahoma County

 The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office says an inmate has died after being found unresponsive in her cell.

Sheriff's spokesman Mark Opgrande says 39-year-old Joann Cortez died Thursday.

Opgrande says Cortez was booked in the jail Tuesday on charges of enabling child sexual abuse and possession of a controlled dangerous substance and was initially placed on suicide watch.

Opgrande says Cortez was later moved to a single-person cell and checked on by a jailer every 30 minutes. He says a jailer saw Cortez at 1:37 p.m. Thursday, and she was found unresponsive at 2:05 p.m.

The body was sent to the state medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death and the incident is under investigation by sheriff's investigators and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.