LITTLE VALLEY — An Olean-area man in the Cattaraugus County Jail for a parole violation died Sunday night after being found unresponsive in his cell.
Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb said an investigation is being conducted into the death of Franklin Chase, 36, who was being held on a charge of violating parole.
Whitcomb said Chase did not hang himself, but declined to speculate on a cause of death.
An autopsy has been conducted and detectives are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, the sheriff said.
Chase was sentenced in County Court in January 2015 to six years in state prison as a repeat felon. He had been charged with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, heroin, in Olean in March 2014. He was out of prison on parole.
