Brayan Rayo Garzon
Brayan Rayo Garzon was a 26-year-old Colombian man who painted and drove for a food delivery service while saving for an immigration lawyer, and his mother, Adriana Garzon, said they shared a Catholic blessing on their nightly calls. He was held in ICE detention at the Phelps County Jail in Rolla, Missouri, and was sick with COVID-19 when he died in April 2026. The Associated Press reports that he had asked for mental health care and to call his mother, and that staff allegedly ignored his handwritten notes. Jail records and an autopsy, as reported by the AP, describe his death as a suicide by hanging in his isolation cell, and his mother said, "I gave him strength."
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). The jail records and an autopsy reviewed by the Associated Press describe a suicide by hanging, while the AP reports that staff allegedly ignored his handwritten requests for mental health care and to call his mother.
Reported by: Phelps County Jail (the agency that held him); Associated Press (reporters).