WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. — Fabian Hernandez, the man charged for the murder of Kaylee Birdzell, died Tuesday after an apparent suicide attempt, according to a news release from the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
Hernandez, 31, was being held at the Washington County Jail, and a deputy making routine rounds on the morning of Aug. 17 noticed that he had apparently made a suicide attempt, police said.
Deputies and jail medical staff attempted to save him then took him to a hospital where he died six days later, according to authorities. Officials have not released any details about his condition during those six days.
The Washington County Major Crimes Team and the Oregon State Medical Examiner are investigating the death, which is standard procedure in cases like this, police said.
Family members of Birdzell, 27, reported her missing Aug. 5, and over the following weekend police came to believe that she had been murdered and her body had been dumped into the garbage in an Aloha apartment complex.
Detectives learned that garbage from the apartment would end up in the Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County near Corvallis, and they worked with waste management crews to search the landfill, eventually locating Birdzell's body on Aug. 10. An autopsy confirmed that her death had been a homicide.
OTHER STORIES: 'The barriers to getting help are very, very high': Family Justice Center of Washington County works to break cycle of domestic abuse
During the investigation, Hernandez was arrested on unrelated charges of identity theft and fraudulent use of a credit card. He had reportedly been in a relationship with Birdzell, and detectives spoke with him on the same day that they came to believe that she had been killed, police said.
After her body was found, he was charged with second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, the latter charge stemming from the disposal of the body in the garbage.
His jail booking record states that he was also being held on charges of burglary and unlawful use of a weapon.
