Families of inmates who died in custody face secrecy, grief, and unanswered questions, turning into detectives to uncover the truth.
After a family member passes away in prison or jail, people are often left with basic questions. To get answers, they have to get creative.
Juan Bernabeu and Da’Shaunae Marisa for The Marshall Project, family photos courtesy of LaDawna Hill, Jacqueline Ciccone and Courtney Crosby
By Aala Abdullahi, Shannon Heffernan and Brittany Hailer
Reprinted from The Marshall Project
When someone dies in jail or prison, the circumstances surrounding their death are often shrouded in secrecy. Along with grief, their loved ones are left with basic, unanswered questions.
Accessing records can be difficult. And facility staff may refuse to speak. The silence allows medical neglect, violence or other forms of misconduct to remain hidden. In the absence of answers, families often have to become detectives — finding creative ways to learn what happened to their loved one.
In these as-told-to’s, edited for length and clarity, three women detail their search for answers. One describes her process as “putting together a puzzle with no picture.”
“I was making it very clear that my dad had someone.”
By Courtney Crosby, as told to Aala Abdullahi
Courtney Crosby remembers her father, Craig, as someone who defied age. At 55, he prided himself on being active, managing his diabetes carefully and keeping a blood pressure cuff in his living room. “He would always say he was like Benjamin Button, aging in reverse,” she recalled.
The last time Courtney and her father hung out, it was at his apartment in Atlantic City. She remembers him dropping to the ground abruptly to do pushups: “So youthful and so full of life and energy, that’s how I remember him,” she said.
That image made his death inside Nevada’s High Desert State Prison especially hard to accept. Craig was serving a short sentence for a decade-old DUI and was only expected to be there for a year. After his release, he hoped to finally make his longtime dream come true by moving to New York, where Courtney also lives.
On March 15, 2025, an associate warden at the prison called Courtney to tell her that her father had died of natural causes. At the time of our interview in early June, she had not yet received the full autopsy report and had turned to a Facebook group for answers.
The report, which she received later that month, ruled his death an accident. But Courtney says she still has questions: “If it was an accident, does that mean it could have been prevented?” And, “Was he scared?”
Craig Crosby, right, with his daughter, Courtney. Courtesy of Courtney Crosby
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