ELWOOD — Questions still remained Saturday after the suicide of a decorated Iraq war veteran in the Elwood City Jail on Friday.
U.S. Army Spc. Timothy K. Israel, 23, was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. Friday at St. Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood after an Elwood police officer found him hanging in a holding cell 15 minutes earlier, according to Ned Dunnichay, Madison County coroner.
The autopsy, which was done Saturday, confirmed that the death was caused by asphyxiation due to hanging in the suicide, Dunnichay said. It was also determined that Israel had used the drawstring from his pants to commit suicide.
A dispatcher from Elwood said the police department would not release any information Saturday or today.
The Indiana State Police will be investigating the incident, but had no information on Saturday. ISP Sgt. Mike Burns had previously said that it was routine for an outside investigation team to look into a death that occurred while the deceased was in custody.
Israel was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of domestic battery after an argument with a former girlfriend. However, friends of Israel said he was wrongfully accused.
Israel’s record includes several previous arrests. In June 2003, he was charged with felony intimidation and theft. In April 2008, he was again arrested for suspicion of felony intimidation.
Keith Israel, the veteran’s father, said Thursday that he was considering a civil lawsuit against the Elwood Police Department because he believed no one was monitoring surveillance cameras in the cell. At that time, Keith Israel said he believed his son’s suicide was the culmination of ongoing police harassment and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder.
Timothy Israel was deployed to Iraq in October 2006, serving for a year. His father said he earned a Purple Heart after being wounded by a roadside explosive in 2007.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, young soldiers have been three times more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than those over the age of 40. In fact, a study from the Rand Corporation posted in April said that 20 percent of returning soldiers have PTSD or depression, and only half of them receive treatment.
In 2007, CBS News (www.cbsnews.com) gathered information from 45 of the 50 states on suicides of war veterans. What it found was that, in 2005 alone, at least 6,256 veterans throughout the United States had committed suicide, an average of 17 per day.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as a failure to cope after a major shock. During World War II, it was known as “shell shock.” About 300,000 soldiers suffer from depression or PTSD, according to the Rand report.
In 2007, President George Bush signed the Joshua Omvig suicide prevention bill into law, providing improved screening and treatment for at-risk veterans. The bill is named after a 22-year-old soldier from Iowa who committed suicide in December 2005 after his return from Iraq.
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