Inmate’s death at Missouri prison is the third this month, eighth this year

LICKING, Mo. (AP) — An investigation continues into the death of a Missouri prison inmate — the third inmate to die at the same lockup this month and the eighth this year.

Michael Hudson, 46, died Tuesday at a hospital after falling ill at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis. Hudson was serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes in St. Louis.

Texas County Coroner Marie Lasater said an autopsy performed Thursday showed that Hudson had intestinal bleeding and gastritis, but it wasn’t clear if that was the cause of death. Toxicology results will take about three weeks, she said.

Drugs were cited in two other inmate deaths in the past month — those of Logan Ross on July 29 and Bronson Vestal on Aug. 11 — as well as the January death of Alan Lancaster. Four other inmates died this year from what the Missouri Department of Corrections called “natural causes.”

Those inmates were Nathan Emery, Wayne Johnston, Roderick Stevenson, and Lanny Sunderland.