Multiple Murderer Kills Self In Garner

By Andrew Gorosko

A North Carolina man, who was serving a life prison sentence in Garner Correctional Institution for five murders in Redding in 1995, committed suicide early Wednesday morning in his cell in the high-security prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road, officials said.

Dead is Geoffrey Ferguson, 52, who was incarcerated on 1998 capital felony and arson convictions. Ferguson died due to asphyxiation, resulting from ligature strangulation, apparently caused by his having tied some object around his neck in his solitary cell, according to the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office.

 In his 1998 trial, Ferguson was convicted of killing Scott Auerbach, 21; David Froehlich, 22; Jason Trusewicz, 21; David Gartrell, 25; and Sean Hiltunen, 21. The crime is considered the worst multiple murder in the state in years.

Ferguson, who had owned a house in the Georgetown section of Redding, was an enraged landlord who shot and killed three tenants and their two friends on April 18, 1995, in a landlord/tenant dispute. Ferguson then set fire to the Portland Avenue house to obscure the cause of the five men’s deaths.

State Department of Correction (DOC) spokeswoman Karen Oien said the DOC is conducting an internal investigation into Ferguson’s death.

While making a routine check of prison cells in Garner, a correction officer found Ferguson to be unresponsive in his solitary cell just after 3 am, according to Ms Oien. Correction officers began emergency lifesaving measures, after which Ferguson was transported to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after 4 am, Ms Oien said.

After Ferguson was found unresponsive, DOC staffers contacted state police at Troop A barracks in Southbury to investigate the matter. The state police’s Western District Major Crime Squad detective unit went to the prison to investigate.

Ferguson’s body was transported to the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington for an autopsy to determine the manner and means of death.

Ferguson’s suicide is the second prisoner suicide that has occurred in DOC prisons this year, according to DOC.