A Texas sheriff’s deputy, who was accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old child and threatening to deport her mother, has been found dead in his jail cell in what authorities said appears to be a suicide.
Jose Nunez, 47, was arrested in June on charges of sexual assaulting child, which authorities said could have been going on for years after learning the deputy was threatening to deport the girl’s mother back to Guatemala if she told anyone, NBC reports.
Nunez was found dead in his cell at the Karnes Correctional Center, a jail southeast of San Antonio, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told NBC.
Salazar declined to detail the condition of Nunez’s body when it was found, but the evidence in his cell leads investigators to believe it was suicide.
Nunez was reportedly related to the child and mother. (RELATED: Texas Priest Accused Of Molestation Vanishes)
Nunez, who worked at the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office for 10 years, was sent to jail in a nearby county in order to avoid housing him in one of the facilities within his former jurisdiction.
Despite the threats from Nunez to deport the child’s mother, who is in the U.S. legally with a work permit, the mother took the child to a local fire department to report the assault.
The Karnes County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Rangers are investigating Nunez’s death and are also looking into whether there were other assault victims.
The mother and her child plan to stay in the San Antonio area for the duration of the investigation.
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