She died just hours after Hancock deputies released her from jail

Authorities believe the death of a Hancock County jail inmate last week was because she swallowed methamphetamine or other similar narcotics.

Hancock County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Don Bass on Monday confirmed the identity of the deceased inmate as Wendy Elizabeth Caspolich, 37, of Bay St. Louis.

Officials believe Caspolich swallowed an unknown amount of meth and possibly other drugs prior to being booked into the Hancock County jail in the early hours of Feb. 27, Bass said.

She was pronounced dead later that morning, Feb. 27, at Hancock Medical Center.

Deputies arrested Caspolich on misdemeanor drug charges during the late hours of Feb. 26. After she was booked into the jail, corrections officers learned she possibly ingested the drugs and had her transported to the emergency room.

“She had to have ingested it either prior to her being arrested or sometime during the process of the arrest,” Bass said. “The sheriff’s office took every precautionary matter it could and had her shipped to the hospital.”

Jail records indicate she was booked at 12:44 a.m. and released at 2:24 a.m. It’s not uncommon for the sheriff’s office to release misdemeanor offenders for medical reasons.

Officers then took her to Hancock Medical where she walked into the ER on her own authority.

Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk said Caspolich’s body has been sent to the Mississippi Forensics Lab in Jackson for an autopsy.

Initial signs point to an overdose, but a definitive cause of death is pending toxicology results, Faulk said.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "She died just hours after Hancock deputies released her from jail."