ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – 39-year-old Chris Griffith was booked into the St. Charles County jail on a misdemeanor stealing warrant this past Wednesday, May 22.
Just six days later, Griffith’s mother, Lorraine Fry, was visited by an officer who said her son was dead.
“That was my baby boy, my only son,” Fry cried.
A St. Charles County news release Tuesday, which had not yet named Griffith, said the inmate was detoxing from fentanyl and other drugs when he arrived last week. The jail reports that around 3:30 am Tuesday, the inmate went to use the bathroom in his cell. Corrections officers reportedly making regular 15-minute wellness checks found him unresponsive and gave CPR until EMS arrived at 4:10 am.
Griffith’s sister said an officer told her that her brother was in a cell alone.
“He was in for misdemeanor stealing, so why were we in segregation?” K.C. Pilger said.
FOX 2 was last inside the St. Charles County jail in October 2023, when director Dan Keen showed us the jail’s TSA-grade body scanner. He warned at the time that it does not catch everything; as he explained back then, “They can stick the fentanyl up under their toenail.”
Keen said they’d had great success getting inmates to turn over some of what they were hiding at booking—in a special amnesty box.
This week, the jail reported finding no contraband inside the jail after Griffith’s death and no signs he obtained drugs on the inside. Griffith’s family wants to know: if their loved one was detoxing upon booking May 22, how would that kill him a week later?
“I want to know what happened,” Pilger said.
Fry added, “I miss my son and I know this isn’t going to bring him back, but I need answers.”
He left behind a loving family and four children, ranging in age from 22 to four years old.
His mother said, “His youngest is autistic and misses her dad. She sleeps with him every night.”
The jail’s investigation continues as staff awaits a police inquiry and autopsy results. The jail is also close to getting electronic wrist monitors for inmates, which will constantly provide health data, such as heart rates, in an effort to prevent future deaths.
FOX 2 will show those when they arrive and bring the jail death investigation result when it’s complete.
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