State Fair Molestation Suspect Commits Suicide

Jailers found Joseph Scott Rehrig's body as they made their rounds. He had hanged himself with a knotted-up bedsheet in his Wake County jail cell.

Rehrig was put behind bars on $1 million bond after being charged with sexually assaulting the teenage boy Sunday night. Fairgrounds police say the attack happened in a bathroom next to the Red Cross Lounge.

Wake County Sheriff John Baker says Rehrig did not act suicidal, but he did try to hide from the jail staff Thursday morning.

"For some reason, he had placed some type of cardboard over the window where they could not see in," he says. "That is why they had someone to come to unlock the door so they could go in and see him."

Authorites have stepped up patrols at the State Fair.