U.S. citizen reportedly found dead in Russian migrant center after apparent suicide

A U.S. citizen named Ernest Harry Mitchell has been found dead in a migrant detention center in Russia’s Krasnodar region, according to the newspaper Kommersant and the state news agency RIA Novosti.

Preliminary findings reportedly suggest that the 56-year-old died by suicide. The anonymous Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, citing its own sources, wrote that Mitchell’s body was found in a restroom stall with cut veins and arteries on his legs, arms, and neck.

Ernest Harry Mitchell was placed in the detention center after a Sochi court found him guilty of violating Russia’s border entry rules. According to RIA Novosti, he was arrested while trying to enter Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia with “undeclared money.” Court documents indicate that Mitchell did not have health insurance that was valid in Russia (though Mitchell believed his policy was valid). The court fined him 3,000 rubles ($32) and ordered his deportation.