LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville woman who died while in the custody of the Jackson County, Indiana, Jail suffered and begged for medical care before her death, according to a former FBI agent hired to privately investigate and an inmate who shared a cell with her hours before her death.
Ta’Neasha Chappell died July 16, according to Indiana State Police. She was arrested in May related to a shoplifting case from the outlet mall in Edinburgh and a corresponding police chase.
The 23-year old woman’s family has continually cried out for information on what happened to Chappell in press conferences and protests. They've also called on the the jail to release surveillance footage showing her condition and care in the hours before she was taken to the hospital.
Monday marks a month since Chappell's passing and their requests have gone unfulfilled, with answers from officials lacking.
“It's more like a waiting game,” Chappell’s older sister Ronesha Murrell said. “There's really been no answers, no footage, no autopsy, no nothing.”
Roneshah Murrell, sister of Ta'Neasha Chappell.
Witness speaks out
Some stories about what happened to Chappell in jail are starting to emerge from people who were locked up with her and have since been released.
“Nobody deserves to go through what she went through,” former Jackson County Jail inmate Patricia 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.”
Perkins said she was in a holding cell with Chappell in the hours before her death, and that jail staff brought her in from another pod clearly in medical distress.
“My sister is actually a trustee in the back and she said she had just vomited and crapped on herself in the day room,” Perkins said. “They just left her there until someone screamed and was like 'Hey, this girl needs help.'"
Jackson County EMS records obtained by WDRB News confirm parts of Perkins story. The records 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.
Perkins says she was suffering.
“She kept asking for help, she kept asking for the nurse. She was banging on the door and stuff and screaming and crying,” Perkins explained. “There’s cameras, so you can see what I’m saying is true.”
No comment, no response
WDRB News went directly to Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer to ask to see that footage and whether any jail staff had been placed on leave for the investigation into Chappell's death. But calls went unreturned, and upon arrival at the sheriff’s office, his staff said he was in a meeting.
The jail won't release any information either. Officials say it’s all part of the ongoing state police investigation. An ISP spokesperson said detectives are diligently looking for the truth.
Jackson County Commissioners who oversee the jail also declined WDRB’s request for interviews. Jackson County Coroner Paul Foster didn't return calls either for an update on the autopsy and timeline for toxicology reports.
Jackson County Attorney Susan Beavers said she would issue a statement via email, but as of Wednesday evening it had not been received.
Former FBI agent investigating
“Everyone I've talked to seems quite upset and shocked with what they experienced,” former FBI agent Doug Kouns said. “If it traumatized them in this way, you can only imagine what that young woman was going through.”
Kouns is the CEO and founder of Veracity IIR, a private investigation firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The legal team representing Chappell’s family hired him to privately investigate her death.
Kouns says he's interviewed about 10 former inmates or jail employees so far. Some, like Perkins, only saw Chappell for a potion of time before her death.
“It makes them credible. The more I hear the same thing, the more believable they all become,” Kouns said. “A good description (would be) hollering for help, moaning and groaning sounds … distress.”
Kouns is using the consistent narrative he’s found to build a timeline backtracking the hours before Chappell died. It starts on the night before, July 15.
“The young woman began struggling late at night somewhere between lockdown and when people went to bed, which is like 10 or 11 o'clock,” Kouns explained.
EMS records reveal the call for an ambulance didn't come until after 3 p.m. the next day, July 16. In the more than 15 hours that passed, Kouns says Chappell collapsed in a common area, was hauled back to her cell then moved to a holding cell with Perkins, who finally made enough noise to get her to a hospital.
“Yelling like ‘Hey, she's not all right in here, she needs help,'" Perkins recalled. “If they don't listen, you kind of like kick the door to get their attention so that's what I did.”
The Jackson County EMS report said Chappell was shackled on the way to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, cuffed at her wrist and ankles. EMTs drove "non-emergency" to the hospital, meaning no lights or sirens reporting "General Weakness."
But Chappell was dead less than three hours later.
“It's difficult to hear this stuff,” said Kouns. “I just can't imagine, no matter what people did, nobody deserves to be treated worse than dirt, like trash.”
The arrest
Indiana State Police said Chappell was suspected of shoplifting from the Polo Ralph Lauren store at the Premium Outlet Mall in Edinburgh. She was said to be part of a seven-woman “shoplifting ring” that had swiped more than $14,000 in merchandise from the outlet mall.
Her arrest made headlines throughout Kentuckiana as video surfaced appearing to show Chappell bust out her own car window.
"She rips her license plate off the back to try to prevent that identity and then realized she's locked out of her own car,” Edinburgh Police Chief Donnie Little said in an interview with WDRB News at the time of her arrest. "So, she had to bust her own window out at the outlet mall to get into her car."
Once inside the car, Chappell headed to Interstate 65 South and led ISP troopers on a high-speed chase before crashing into a ditch near Exit 7 — the State Road 60 exit — from southbound I-65 at Hamburg in Clark County, Indiana.
“She was still human,” Murrell said. “I don't care what she did, she still deserved to be here with us … She was in their custody, she deserved to have been taken care of. My sister's Black body was supposed to come home to us, to her child.”
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.
Kouns said his interviews confirmed many people didn’t like her. He said Chappell was "attitudinal" and didn’t get along with a core group.
Murrell believes her sister died by poisoning due to conversations they had in the days and weeks before Chappell’s death.
"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," she said.
WDRB News submitted an open records request to the Jackson County Jail for all records or reports relating to physical incidents or discipline involving Chappell while she was incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail.
Three weeks later, and no response.
Despite lacking answers about how Chappell died and why, her sister says she and her family will not give up their fight.
“The people in jail that played a part in this, I feel like everything you do in the dark comes to light," Murrell said. "Eventually it will reveal itself and you can only sleep so comfortably for so long."
Related Stories:
- Several protests held for Louisville woman who died while in custody at Jackson County Jail
- Attorneys: Louisville woman who died in custody of southern Indiana jail had bruises on her face
- ISP: Louisville woman dies while in custody at Jackson County Jail
- Police suspect shoplifting suspects are part of a theft ring with ties to Louisville
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