A 42-year-old mother of eight was found dead in her jail cell Monday.
Officers reportedly thought she was simply sleeping.
Raynette Turner had been arrested Saturday for allegedly shoplifting and had been taken to the Mount Vernon Police Department to be held pending her arraignment.
On Sunday, she began to complain of feeling ill and was taken to the hospital for treatment, but she was released afterward back into the care of the prison.
On Monday, Turner was found unresponsive in her holding cell at around 2 p.m. She had last been seen conscious sometime between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., and the last note made by officials indicated that Turner had been seen turned over on her side and looked like she was sleeping.
There was no indication of foul play, and officials noted that she had recently had a bariatric surgery and had a history of hypertension. A medical examiner will soon conduct an autopsy to find the cause of death.
In the meantime, her husband is demanding answers and claims that he has not yet gotten any.
“I can’t get any answers from detectives, anyone,” Herman Turner told NBC New York. “She was a wife. She was a mother. She was mine.”