Woman dies in apparent suicide at Bernalillo County jail
May 3—A female inmate died at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Thursday afternoon in what authorities are calling a suicide.
Jail spokesman Daniel Trujillo said the facility's medical staff responded to a medical emergency involving Marcella Montelongo, 23. He said Bernalillo County firefighters and paramedics responded to the call at MDC around 2:30 p.m. and "life-saving measures" went on until Montelongo was pronounced dead at 2:41 p.m.
Trujillo said the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator will investigate the cause of death. He gave no other details.
Jayme Fuller, a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman, said deputies "were called to investigate a suicide" at the facility.
"We don't have any additional details to release at this time," she said.
Montelongo is the second fatality in 2024. Pete Salazar, 26, died at the facility in January.
Montelongo is the 29th person to die or be fatally injured after being booked into MDC since early 2020, with most of the deaths happening to people in detox. It is unclear if Montelongo was in detox when she died.
Amid the deaths, MDC had two for-profit health care providers come and go in as many years until the University of New Mexico Health Systems took over in July 2023.
Court records show Montelongo was booked on April 26 on a charge of child abuse resulting in death. The charges stemmed from the July 2023 death of her 5-year-old son due to suspected neglect.
