Man charged after sister awakened from coma, dies in custody – Law Officer

CHARLESTON, West Virginia —A West Virginia man charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, has died less than a week after his arrest, authorities said Friday. The EpochTimes reports that Daniel J. Palmer III was pronounced dead Thursday at a Charleston hospital.

He was taken to the hospital after being evaluated by jail medical staff.

The cause of death was not released.

Palmer, 55, was uncooperative while in custody and during booking procedures at the South Central Regional Jail, where he was taken July 15 after being charged with the attempted murder and malicious wounding of his sister, the statement said.

His death likely brings a close to a highly unusual case in which the investigation was stalled for two years by a lack of evidence.

His sister, Wanda Palmer, was in a coma in a nursing home for two years. She was found unconscious with serious head injuries at her home in Jackson County on June 10, 2020.

Daniel Palmer had been identified as a suspect, but up until the time she emerged from the coma, investigators did not have enough evidence to file charges, court documents said.