SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities say an inmate serving a life sentence is the primary suspect in the strangulation death of a Washington state corrections officer.
The officer was found dead Saturday night in the chapel at Monroe Correctional Complex about 30 miles northeast of Seattle. Authorities say she had been strangled with a microphone cord.
According to the Teamsters, Jayme Biendl (JAY'-mee BIHN'-duhl) had complained to her union shop steward and prison supervisors about being the sole guard working in the chapel. The union says she worried about being there alone without anyone checking on her.
The inmate, Byron Scherf, was reported missing during a routine count. Officials say he was found in the chapel lobby less than an hour before the guard's body was discovered.
Scherf is serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of first-degree rape and kidnapping in 1997 under the state's "three-strikes" law.
