ALGONA – A North Iowa man took his own life in a Kossuth county jail cell, authorities say.
The investigation into the death of the Kossuth County jail inmate who died on October 17, 2020, has been completed. On October 12, 2020, Christopher Mark Brunsvold, 44, of Wesley, Iowa, was booked into the Kossuth County Jail. Brunsvold was awaiting transfer to the Iowa Medical Classification Center in Coralville, Iowa, to begin serving a sentence for a probation violation.
On the evening of October 16, 2020, Brunsvold reportedly interacted normally with another inmate and jail staff. At 10:30 p.m., Brunsvold and the other inmates were placed in lockdown for the evening. Brunsvold was alone in his cell from lockdown until 7:12 a.m., when he was discovered unresponsive, lying on his back in his bed.
The investigation and an autopsy completed by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner determined that Brunsvold’s cause of death was ligature strangulation and the manner of death was suicide.