Elizabeth Gaunt
Elizabeth Gaunt was a 56-year-old substance abuse counselor who worked for Sonoma County and at Adventist Health St. Helena hospital, and she had earned a master's degree in counseling. She had moved with her only child, Dane Shikman, to Santa Rosa about 15 years earlier. On August 2, 2015, she died by hanging inside the Lake County Jail in Lakeport, California, where she had been placed in a sobering cell after deputies found her disoriented. According to the district attorney's office, she hanged herself from a sink, and her son said the death was preventable. Her family's federal civil rights lawsuit against the county was settled for $2 million, and the sheriff changed suicide prevention practices afterward.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). Her son says the death was preventable and her family's lawsuit says she never received a mental health evaluation by a doctor after deputies found her disoriented and placed her in a sobering cell.
Reported by: District Attorney's Office; her son; her family's federal civil rights lawsuit (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: Her family sued Lake County over her death in the Lake County Jail and settled the federal civil rights lawsuit for $2 million.