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| Murderer Commits Suicide In Conn. Prison |
| By Hartford Courant /Associated Press |
| Published: 05/09/2003 |
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A North Carolina man convicted of killing of five people at a house he owned eight years ago took his own life Wednesday morning in a state prison, police said. The office of the chief state medical examiner said Geoffrey Ferguson, 52, who was serving a life sentence for capital felony and arson convictions, died as a result of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation - tying something around his neck. Police said he did not hang himself. The death was ruled a suicide. Ferguson, during his 1998 trial, was depicted as an enraged landlord who gunned down three tenants and two of their friends on April 18, 1995. Prosecutors said Ferguson was angry that the men were late with their rent and had thwarted his attempts to evict them. The victims were Scott Auerbach, 21; David Froehlich, 22; Jason Trusewicz, 21; David Gartrell, 25; and Sean Hiltunen, 21. Each of the men was shot in the head; four of the bodies were burned beyond recognition when he set the house they were living in on fire. It remains the worst multiple murder in Connecticut in more than a decade, police said. Family members of the slain men said news of Ferguson's death gave them little relief. 'I don't want to waste any emotions on Geoffrey Ferguson. It's not going to bring my son back, and it's not going to bring back those other dear boys,' said David Froehlich's father John Froehlich. 'This is going to sound weird, but I feel sorry for his family,' said Janet Auerbach, Scott Auerbach's mother. Ferguson was found unresponsive in his cell at the Garner Correctional Center in Newtown just before 3 a.m., the state Department of Correction said. The discovery was made during a routine count by prison officers. Prison staff tried emergency life saving measures and then transported Ferguson to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after 4 a.m. State police and correction officials would not say how Ferguson, who was alone in a cell, died or what he used to strangle himself. One investigator said Ferguson might have cut himself first because blood was found on his cell floor. |
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