NEWS
Officials search for answers after Wu’s suicide
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by Aubre Andrus
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
The investigation of former University of Wisconsin student Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu’s suicide in the Dane County Jail continues as the families of the triple-homicide victims and the investigation team continue to search for answers to an occurrence that is not uncommon throughout the Wisconsin jail system.
Bernie Coughlin, police chief in Verona, where the murders occurred, said several investigators involved with the case and the prosecution team met with the families of the victims last Thursday.
“We provided them an opportunity for questions and answers,” Coughlin said.
Captain Mike Plumer of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said part of the content of the letters found in Wu’s cell and in the internal mail system were released to officials by Wu’s attorneys, Stephen Hurley and Hal Harlowe.
“What was in the letter that we were allowed to know said he had been planning suicide for quite some time,” Plumer said.
Plumer said Wu had been on suicide watch, allowing for him to be checked in his cell every 15 minutes, for three weeks in November 2004 and for one week in November 2003. Inmates on suicide watch are evaluated and, if they appear stable, taken off the program and checked once every hour.
“They evaluate them all the time and eventually they’ll clear them from suicide watch,” Plumer said. “This guy was planning it so well that he was intentionally concealing his intent.”
Plumer added he does not necessarily believe that Wu’s suicide would have been prevented if he had been on suicide watch.
According to Plumer, the Dane County Jail has discovered and prevented hundreds of suicide attempts in the recent years. Since January 2000, there have been 101 suicide attempts in the Dane County Jail. Since Jan. 1, 2001, there have been 3,484 inmates on suicide watch.
The last successful suicide before Wu took his life this month was in May 2004. Plumer said a woman hung herself by tying a sheet through a ventilation grate in the same building where Wu committed suicide.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections records state that since 1995, there have been 64 suicides, 61 of which were hangings, throughout Wisconsin jails. Plumer said modern jails do not have bars on the cells, contradictory to what is seen in movies and on television, in order to prevent suicides.
“We are always researching methods and what the latest technology is,” Plumer said. “It’s an old jail and it’s not designed to modern suicide standards.”
According to Plumer, the sprinkler head that Wu tied a piece of cloth to and hung himself by was probably manufactured 20 to 30 years ago. Plumer said the facility needs to be modernized, but that will be a decision the county must decide on.
Wu was charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide in June 2003. He was accused of shooting three roommates in their Verona duplex: Jason McGuigan, 28; Dustin Wilson, 17, and Daniel Swanson, 25. Wu was found at about 1 a.m. Jan. 18, the morning on which his trial was scheduled, hanging from a strip of cloth tied to a sprinkler head in his prison cell.
Coroner John Stanley said the autopsy is complete and consistent with self-inflicted injury.
