A 35-year-old Dundalk man died over the weekend at the Baltimore jail complex, where transparency has been a longstanding concern.
Jeffrey Kluver was found unresponsive on Sunday at the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center and later pronounced dead, said Keith Martucci, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs the city’s jails and state prisons, in a statement.
The cause of death remains under investigation pending the results of an autopsy, Martucci said. But at this time, he said, “foul play is not suspected.”
It was not immediately clear what charges Kluver had been facing. Baltimore Police did not respond to a request for comment.
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The corrections department does not notify the public when someone dies in custody unless it’s a homicide. Families also frequently report difficulty in getting answers themselves.
“There’s a lot of concern in my family to try to figure out what actually happened, and nobody seems to be forthcoming with information so far,” said Jeffrey Kluver’s brother, Michael Kluver, 34, of Palm Bay, Florida.
The Baltimore Banner learned about the death from independent sources.
An official at the jail initially claimed that his brother was not incarcerated there, Michael Kluver said. But he said he later learned that was not true, and that the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had taken possession of the body.
A spokesperson from the medical examiner’s office confirmed that detail and described the case as pending, stating that an autopsy report had not yet been completed.
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Jeffrey Kluver struggled with substance use disorder and mental health issues, his brother said, adding that he had dropped out of school and worked in construction.
Though he “wasn’t a saint,” Michael Kluver described his brother as a big-hearted person who loved his family.
He’s at least the second person incarcerated at the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center this year who has died while in custody.
On New Year’s Day, Trayvon Ocain, 33, of Baltimore, was pronounced dead at Mercy Medical Center after experiencing a medical emergency.
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