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FORT WAYNE, IN (AP) -- A coroner has confirmed a suicide in the prison hanging death of Simon Rios, the Fort Wayne man who was serving five life terms for the strangling deaths of his wife, three young daughters and a neighborhood girl.
Madison County Coroner Ned Dunnichay ruled today that the 36-year-old Rios' death was a suicide by asphyxiation due to hanging.
Rios was found hanging in his cell Thursday at the Pendleton Correctional Facility near Anderson.
Rios' attorney has said he left a note requesting his remains be returned to his native Mexico.
Rios fatally beat and strangled his wife and strangled their three daughters ages 10, four and 20 months in 2005. Five days earlier, he had lured a 10-year-old girl into his van as she waited at a school bus stop, then rape and strangled her and dumped her body in a gravel pit near Muncie.
(Copyright ©2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
