The Missouri Highway Patrol is investigating the death of an inmate in the Barry County Jail.

The wife of Manuel Flores tells KSPR News her husband became sick while in the jail Monday night (9-15).

She says he'd been in jail since September seventh.

Tonya Flores says her husband called her and said he was throwing up blood and passing out.

The jailer gave him pepto bismol and Tylenol.

At 9:30 Tuesday morning he was dead in his jail cell.

Sheriff Mick Epperly calls the death suspicious simply because the inmate was in his cell.

He says its protocol to ask an outside agency to investigate.

He says preliminary autopsy results point to inflammation of the heart.

"They didn't foresee this coming." Epperly said, "I do not have one jailer who wouldn't take someone to the hospital if they needed it."

Epperly says his staff thought Flores only had the flu.

The medical examiner says it's too early to determine the exact cause.

However, the examiner says preliminary results point to natural causes.

Toxicology results are still pending.

The family of the illegal alien is convinced what he ate at breakfast made him sick.

Tonya Flores says her husband would still be alive if he received the medical treatment he needed.

She says she personally called the sheriff's department, jail and police chief asking to have her husband taken to the doctor.

"They should have done something." Flores said, "Now my kids and I are going to have to suffer."

Flores was jailed for assault, unlawful use of a weapon and was also on an "immigration hold".