ORDWAY, Colo. (AP) — A coroner says a female corrections officer who was killed at the Colorado prison where she worked died of a stab wound to the neck.
Crowley County Coroner Karen Tomky said late Wednesday that Sgt. Mary Ricard's death Monday was a homicide. Corrections officials had said the 55-year-old died in an assault involving an inmate in the kitchen of the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility but hadn't released details.
Authorities have described convicted sex offender Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez as a person of interest in Ricard's death. He has been transferred to a maximum-security prison while her death is investigated.
Corrections officials say Contreras-Perez had been disciplined multiple times for sexual harassment of women employees at another Colorado prison last year.
