DuPage County detainee dies after being found unconscious in cell

A DuPage County jail detainee died Monday after being found unconscious in her cell, the DuPage County sheriff's office announced.

Reneyda Aguilar-Hurtado, 50, was discovered by a deputy conducting her regular rounds around 9:35 a.m., a news release said. Deputies performed CPR until Wheaton paramedics arrived and rushed her to Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, where she was pronounced dead a few hours later, the news release said.

The sheriff's office said no signs of physical trauma were found. An autopsy is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Aguilar-Hurtado was arrested March 19 in an Addison battery case. On April 10, she was deemed unfit to stand trial and was ordered to be transferred to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services for mental health treatment, the news release said. It was not clear Monday night why she was still in the DuPage County jail.

On Saturday, Aguilar-Hurtado was placed on a medical watch to occur every 15 minutes after she was found in her cell sitting in a pool of vomit and refused medical assistance, the sheriff's office said. She was to have been examined by a doctor Monday morning.

The death is under investigation.

“This is an extremely unfortunate event,” Sheriff James Mendrick said in the news release. “We take all the necessary safeguards to protect our detainees, and our preliminary investigation indicates all the proper procedures were followed. We believe very strongly that our mission is not merely to confine detainees, but to care for them as well.”