ER report shows concern Louisville woman ingested poison before death in Indiana jail custody

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Emergency room doctors feared the Louisville woman who died while in the custody of the Jackson County Jail in Indiana consumed poison — more specifically, antifreeze.

It's what Ta'Neasha Chappell's family feared most.

"Really, I think they poisoned her," Chappell’s older sister Ronesha Murrell, told WDRB News.

An ER report done at the Schneck Medical Center obtained by WDRB News reveals doctors had the same fear: "Concern the patient may (have) ingested ethylene glycol or methanol."

It's what came back in lab tests that prompted the concern.

"The way that medical staff does this, there are certain labs that they do," Dr. Lipi Roy, jail medicine expert, said. "Certain labs they obtain and analyze. So basic chemistries including sodium, potassium, bicarb chloride."

Doctors said Chappell's lab results pointed to a possible poisoning.

"Just to be clear, ethylene glycol is antifreeze, and methanol is used like an active ingredient in rubbing alcohol," Roy said. "But to be very, very clear ... neither is safe for human consumption."

WDRB News sent Chappell's 157 pages of medical records from Schneck to Roy, a nationally-known jail health expert who served as one of the chief doctors for New York City jails, including Rikers Island.

"The labs are certainly concerning, and the timeline is concerning and I do believe it was all preventable," Roy said. "Her death was tragic and I believe preventable."

The timeline

EMS reports show an ambulance was dispatched to the Jackson County Jail for Chappell around 3:15 on July 16. She arrived at the Schneck Medical Center just before 4 p.m. and was dead less than two hours later at 5:42 p.m.

But Chappell was sick the night before. Witnesses who were in the jail at the same time told WDRB News she'd vomited all night, defecated on herself and begged for care starting around 10 p.m. — more than 15 hours before she was taken to a hospital.

"She kept asking for help, she kept asking for the nurse, she was banging on the door and stuff and screaming and crying," Patricia Perkins, a former Jackson County Jail inmate who briefly shared a cell with Chappell, said.

"Nobody deserves to go through what she went through," Perkins said. “She would like stand up and then just like fall over. She wasn't really making sense and she said she was cold.”

Jackson County EMS records obtained by WDRB News say Chappell's skin was warm and dry and had obvious yellow discoloration of the lower lip suspected to be jaundice or "possibly dried regurgitated bile." The documents also say she had a large 8-inch by 12-inch yellow mark on her chest and a swollen area on her forehead.

From the beginning, loved ones thought Chappell was poisoned based on some of their last conversations with her.

"She told me somebody put bleach in her pickle juice and she had went off and that's the same day she told me if she doesn’t get out of there they were going to kill her," Murrell said in a July interview with WDRB.

Chappell was arrested in May, charged for shoplifting from the Edinburg Outlet Mall and a police chase that ended in a crash.

Since her death, Chappell's family has said that the 23-year-old had many problems in the jail, like being called racist names and cut with a razor blade.

Records show Chappell's white blood cell count was extremely high at the ER, showing her body was fighting something. Doctors said she suffered metabolic acidosis — high acid levels in her body, anemia and ultimately, cardiac arrest.

"She should have received medical attention from a higher level of care right away," Roy said. "It seemed like there was an unnecessary period of waiting and, truth be told, that could have saved her life."

Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer won't release any video what happened to Chappell. Phone calls to the sheriff with questions go unanswered.

WDRB News has reached out to county commissioners, the county attorney and the coroner — all no response and no information, saying it's all part of the ongoing investigation by Indiana State Police.

No official cause of death has been released publicly. Six weeks after Chappell's death — questions still remain with silence from county leaders.

"We don't expect (an) otherwise healthy 23-year-old individual to die," Roy said. "I want to really emphasize that, and that's why this case is so tragic. Without knowing exactly what happened in the jail, it's very suspicious."

The attorneys for Chappell's family, who recently represented the family of Breonna Taylor, hired a former FBI agent to independently get answers in her death — hoping the whole truth comes to light.

"We get little by little bit. Little by little bit," Murrell said. "They didn't care about her."

The ER records also show Chappell tested negative for cocaine, heroin, opiates and other drugs.

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