Alan Mauldin
MOULTRIE — Initial indications are that the death of a 27-year-old Moultrie woman at Southwestern State Hospital was due to natural circumstances, Thomas County Coroner Sam Brown said.
Monica Edwards was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. Friday at the mental health facility, Brown said, and there is no indication of foul play or accidental death.
She was found unresponsive in a unit at the facility.
An autopsy on the body was performed Monday at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Decatur, Brown said.
The cause of death has not been determined, he said.
“I’m having an autopsy done, but I don’t know,” he said.
Kristie Swink, communications outreach specialist for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said she could not discuss Edwards’s case specifically.
The policy of the department, which oversees the state’s mental health facilities, in cases of a patient death is to notify the coroner and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Ronnie Thompson, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Thomasville office, said he has not been notified of a death at Southwestern State Hospital.
“We’re not involved in any kind of death at Southwestern,” he said.
Funeral services for Edwards are scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday.
