Aaron Michael Estrada-Buelna
Aaron Michael Estrada-Buelna, 29, of Nogales, was held in the Cochise County jail in Bisbee, Arizona. The sheriff's office said detention officers found him trying to hang himself in his cell in February 2020, and he was airlifted to a Tucson hospital, where he died the next day. His family, including his mother, has filed claims and a federal wrongful death lawsuit alleging that mistreatment and threats from staff at the Santa Cruz and Cochise County jails, and officials' deliberate indifference to his safety, contributed to his death. The defendants deny wrongdoing, and the lawsuit had not been resolved as of October 2021.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (disputed; neglect alleged). The sheriff's office says he tried to hang himself in his cell, and his family's federal lawsuit says mistreatment by staff drove him to suicide and officials were deliberately indifferent to his safety.
Reported by: Cochise County Sheriff's Office (the agency that held him); his family's federal wrongful death lawsuit (family or their lawyers); his mother, through attorney Homero Torralba's notice of claim (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: His family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit over his death at the Cochise County jail, and his mother filed a notice of claim seeking $7 million, but no settlement or award amount is reported.