Maryland State Police have launched an investigation into the death of a 30-year-old man incarcerated at North Branch Correctional Institution in Allegany County.

Elias Alvarado was pronounced dead by first responders Friday.

Another inmate, who has not been charged and whom police did not name, is a suspect in connection with his death. Police are withholding this information pending further investigation.

Police said Alvarado was last seen standing with another man on the tier of the prison where he lived before officers found him lying on the floor of that same tier unresponsive.

Police did not say what may have caused his death.

In 2017, a judge sentenced Alvarado to life in prison, according to court records, for the murders of two women. Prosecutors said he strangled both women with his bare hands, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Police were called to the 3900 block of Dolfield Avenue on Sept. 8, 2016, to find Alvarado, who was 22 at the time, standing over the body of Ranarda Williams, 35.

Alvarado’s DNA tied him to that case and to a second homicide that took place six days earlier. Annquinette Dates, 48, was found dead on Sept. 2, 2016, behind a townhome on Bancroft Road in Northwest Baltimore.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigative Unit contacted state police Friday to report Alvarado’s death.

Maryland State Police declined to comment further because the investigation is active. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services did not respond to a request for information before publication.