A 20-year-old Green Bay native was on suicide watch at the Milwaukee County Jail. She still died. Her mother wants answers.
Kerrie Hirte always made sure there was money on the phone and messenger account for her 20-year-old daughter, Cilivea Sunray Thyrion. The two spoke or messaged almost daily after Thyrion was placed in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail in February of last year.
The calls and messages went cold on Dec. 16. That night a detective arrived at Hirte's Green Bay home and broke the news of Thyrion's death that day after she swallowed part of a diaper.
Thyrion struggled nearly all of her life with severe mental health problems, including self-harm and ingesting objects — which continued during a nearly yearlong stay in the jail. Thyrion told her mother in phone calls that her pleas for more psychiatric help had gone unanswered.
Staff at the jail provided her with a diaper because she had blood running down her leg, Hirte learned from the detective. It is believed she had her period. During their encounter, the detective told Hirte that Thyrion had been on suicide watch at the time of her death, Hirte told the Journal Sentinel.
On suicide watch, she would have been closely monitored and on observation every 15 minutes, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office's policy on suicide prevention and intervention.
"How can this happen when she's on suicide watch?" Hirte asked.
It's the first of many questions Hirte, 47, has about Thyrion's death, but answers remain elusive. Thyrion is the third person to die in Milwaukee County Jail over the past eight months. County officials are calling for an audit of the facility, with a particular focus on suicide prevention protocols and policies.
"I'm still waiting for her to call," Hirte told the Journal Sentinel, gesturing to the small memorial shrine she set up in honor of her daughter. "Every morning I wake up and I think it's a dream until I see her picture sitting there."
It is unclear whether jail staff was checking her at regular 15-minute intervals, whether she was being observed by a health care professional or how staff missed it when she ingested the diaper.
Individuals on suicide watch are not permitted to wear undergarments unless the individual is female and currently menstruating, per policy.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office declined to confirm whether Thyrion was on suicide watch, whether jail staff had been checking on her and whether she had been observed by a health care professional, per policy, and how staff had missed her ingesting the diaper.
The day of her death, the Milwaukee County Sherriff's Office released a statement noting that at approximately 10:30 a.m., jail personnel found a woman "conscious but in distress in her cell." Shortly thereafter, medical personnel and emergency services were called to treat the woman, who was later pronounced dead just before 11:15 a.m. Authorities ruled it an "apparent suicide."
"Our prayers go out to Ms. Thyrion's family for their loss," a Milwaukee County Sherriff's Office spokesperson said. "However, as there is an ongoing investigation into her death being conducted by an outside law enforcement agency, which will be followed by an internal review, the Milwaukee County Sherriff's Office cannot comment further at this time."
The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department is investigating Thyrion's death, as the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office cannot legally investigate itself.
Waukesha County Sheriff's Department said no more additional information can be released due to the ongoing investigation into her death.
'Mom, they're not treating me right in here and I need help.'
Concerns about Thyrion's mental health problems and her care at the jail started much earlier, according to her mother.
One day early in Thyrion's stay at the jail, Hirte recalled her daughter was notably absent, with the messenger system indicating Thyrion's status as "released." Being released would indicate that Thyrion was no longer at the jail. As the months passed, this became a regular occurrence.
She began calling the jail, demanding that they tell her where her daughter was going.
She later learned from a member of the jail's medical staff that Thyrion had been ingesting items — in one instance she was told she had swallowed a pencil — and had been released into the care of a local hospital. Hirte said the detective told her that Thyrion had gone to the hospital at least six times. Hirte said she was never notified despite her daughter asking the jail to do so.
Two weeks prior to Thyrion's death, Hirte recalls that the jail had said Thyrion was doing well and that she was being taken care of.
But during the many conversations with her daughter while she was held at the jail, Hirte was alarmed by her daughter's calls for help.
"Cilivea said 'Mom, they're not treating me right in here and I need help,'" Hirte said. "She struggled more when she was confined to a small place where she had hardly any human interaction. She did not like to be alone."
Her mental health problems took hold at a young age
From a young age, Thyrion had dealt with severe mental health problems, including anxiety, borderline personality features, intermittent explosive disorder (repeated and sudden episodes of aggressive, impulsive and violent behavior or angry verbal outbursts), major depressive disorder and suicidal behavior — all of which were diagnosed and documented by health care professionals, according to documents reviewed by the Journal Sentinel.
Her mother told the Journal Sentinel that as a teenager, her daughter had a history of self-harm, including cutting, drinking bleach and household cleaners, and overdosing on pills.
When Thyrion was 13, Hirte was arrested and sentenced for her fifth drunken driving offense. During her time at the Brown County Jail, Hirte said, she went through rehabilitation, attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and found faith. She has been sober for seven years.
At the same time, Thyrion’s father was also being held at the Brown County Jail.
It was during this time that Thyrion began cycling in and out of foster care, mental health care institutions and residential treatment programs provided by various counties across Wisconsin — but mainly in Brown County.
Thyrion's arrest on a felony charge of strangulation and suffocation and a misdemeanor charge of battery in February of 2022 led to the incarceration that would see the end of her life. Her run-ins with the law included a reported assault of a staff member at a group home and an outburst at St. Luke's Hospital that allegedly led to her biting a security officer.
To her uncle, Travis Wallenfang, the jail represented the last Wisconsin institution to fail his niece.
"They tried her and locked her up right away, rather than giving her treatment, which, based on her documented history of almost 15, 18 years of medical treatment she shouldn't have been locked up,” Wallenfang said. “She should have been treated.”
"They're just setting her up to fail from the beginning," he said.
Wallenfang said he and Cilivea's mother did their best to help her through childhood and adolescence. They would encourage her to sing, play board games, swim, go sledding, be outdoors among the trees, creeks and rivers around Green Bay.
"I would always take her to go do stuff and just try to have fun," Wallenfang said. "I knew she needed a lot of attention. So, I would take her out of those spots where she was, where she would get explosive."
Thyrion had planned to move back with her mother in Green Bay once she was released from jail, hoping to be with her family, continue her education and restart her life by finding proper treatment for her mental health.
But that never happened.
Series of in-custody deaths trigger audit
Upon entry to the Milwaukee County Jail, individuals undergo medical and mental health screening, which includes a series of questions that assess their risk for suicide, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office's custody manual.
Individuals who are placed on suicide watch are closely monitored in a suicide-proof cell and a staff member must conduct observation "no less than 15-minute irregular intervals." A qualified healthcare professional must observe the individual at least once per day.
Someone who is deemed as actively suicidal must be monitored continuously by direct observation by a correctional officer. They shall not be permitted to have any item that can be fashioned into an implement for hanging, razors or other sharp objects or any object that could be used to self-harm.
Just a few months before her death, Milwaukee County was already looking into suicide prevention protocols at the jail. Their investigation was sparked by the death of 21-year-old Brieon Green in June of last year.
Green was arrested June 26 at Bradford Beach on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon — a handgun — and three counts of felony bail jumping. Four hours later, authorities reported that he had died by apparent suicide after he had been placed in a holding cell during booking.
Green’s family demanded answers. The county’s investigation left more questions.
It turned out that only twenty-eight minutes after Green was booked into the jail on June 26 he died by suicide by strangling himself with a phone cord despite a jail officer walking past the cell as Green was taking his life, the family's attorney B'Ivory LaMarr said.
LaMarr alleges that the jail had knowledge of Green's history of mental illness, including suicidal ideation during previous stays at the jail, and had failed to follow the suicide prevention protocols and operating procedures.
Files and interviews released after the investigation into Green's death note that during Green's medical screening during the intake process, he was uncooperative with staff. When asked if he was suicidal, he replied "No and no to all your questions."
During the initial triage process, "the intake nurse did not have access to Green's classification and placement history" at the jail, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm's redacted letter alerting Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball of the findings of the investigation.
In January, Chisolm determined there was "no basis" for criminal liability in Green's jail death.
LaMarr later responded, “We have long maintained that the tragic death of Brieon Green was completely preventable and is the direct result of negligence and a failure to maintain the constitutional protections Brieon should have been apprised of."
Now, LaMarr is representing Hirte and Thyrion's family. He told the Journal Sentinel that Thyrion "tragically dying from the consumption of a diaper is not only utterly disturbing, but reckless."
"Cilivea was not known to have any medical issues that would warrant being provided a diaper, and our external investigation leads us to call into question the morality of certain staff members retained by the County," he said. "While the County Jail is intended to be a place to ensure safety for the good of society, it has instead become a place of danger and a final resting place, especially to some individuals who suffer from mental illness."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green Bay mother seeks answers after daughter died in Milwaukee jail
