Death investigation complete for Md. man who killed self before murder trial
February 7, 2019
"WASHINGTON — Tyler Tessier had five people he wanted to get in touch with before he hanged himself last year, hours ahead of opening statements in his murder trial for the 2017 death of his pregnant girlfriend, Laura Wallen.
Crime scene investigators found five suicide letters on the top of his bunk bed when they discovered him dead on Sept. 6, 2018.
WTOP has been briefed on selected details of Montgomery County police’s investigation into the death of Tessier, whose body was found before 5 a.m. in his cell at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Later that morning, jurors were expected to hear opening statements in Tessier’s first-degree murder trial in the death of Wallen, a Howard County teacher who had disappeared in September 2017.
On the day of his death, Warden Susan Malagari said Tessier, 34, hanged himself with a bed sheet.
“The cause of death was hanging, and that was ruled suicide,” Bruce Goldfarb, of Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told WTOP. “The toxicology showed no drugs or alcohol in his system.”...
Jordan said the five letters were forensically analyzed before being delivered to the people to whom they were addressed.
Only Tessier’s fingerprints were on the letters, Jordan said, eliminating the possibility that another person had killed Tessier and written them to conceal a crime.
On the day Tessier killed himself, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said the letters indicated Tessier had been contemplating suicide for a while, and did not acknowledge killing Wallen.
McCarthy said the letters would be made public after the police investigation.
But now, after repeated requests from WTOP, police and prosecutors said the letters will not be released...."
Death investigation complete for Md. man who killed self before murder trial | WTOP
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