A convicted kidnapper was found dead in his cell at the Utah State Prison on Friday night.

Officials suspect inmate Gary Wilson Simmons hanged himself. His body was discovered just past 8:30 p.m. after he had apparently used a bed sheet draped over a heat vent to hang himself, prison spokesman Jesse Gallegos said.Simmons was housed in a single-bunk cell unit in the Uintah One section of the prison. Gallegos said officials are treating the death as a homicide, which is routine in the death of any inmate, but added that an initial investigation indicates the death was a suicide.

Simmons was convicted of aggravated kidnapping in 1992.

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