Officials: Two inmates in two days commit suicide in Iowa correctional facilities

Two inmates in two days committed suicide this week inside Iowa facilities, authorities said.

About 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, a man who had served about nine years of a 25-year sentence for attempted murder was discovered

unresponsive at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale, state corrections officials said Thursday. Mahendrakumar

Maneklal Patel, 48, had a bed sheet tied around his neck and to an electrical conduit on the ceiling, authorities said. Crews tried

to revive him but he was declared dead later at a hospital.

Patel was serving a sentence from a Polk County case.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, inmate Ross A. Emerson was discovered hanged in his cell at the Iowa County Jail.

CPR was performed and Emerson was taken to Marengo Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Emerson was in custody on an assault charge carrying a $5,000 bail, officials said.

Both deaths remain under investigation.