Confessed killer found dead, hanging in jail cell this morning
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Carl Dane, the confessed killer of Pinckneyville teenager Sidnee Stephens, was found hanged in his cell in the Perry County Jail early Friday morning.
According to Perry County Coroner Paul Searby Dane, 19, was pronounced dead at 5 a.m.
Dane was charged and pleaded guilty to the July 2010 death of the Pinckneyville girl, whose body was found by fishermen in Beaucoup Creek.
Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman was at the jail, but not immediately available to talk about the investigation, now in the hands of the Illinois State Police.
At this writing the unanswered question is whether there was surveillance on the cellblock and when was the last bed check.
Dane had been sentenced June 23 to 60 years in prison for the murder, and was about to be transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
An autopsy and toxicology results are pending.
Dane faced 11 counts in connection with the July 2010 death of the 15-year-old Stephens. Dane was 18 at the time of the murder.
Dane has confessed to going to Stephens' home and choking her until she passed out. He then drove her to a bridge on Cudgetown Road that crosses Beaucoup Creek in central Perry County, where he shot her and left her body.
Her body was found in the creek by fishermen.
Two other teens have pleaded not guilty to the murder.
James Glazier and Robbie Mueller are also facing murder charges in Stephens' death.
Sidnee's half-sister, Dakota Wall, has been charged with obstruction of justice, accused of making false statements to investigators. Mueller's trial is set to begin Aug. 15 in Perry County Circuit Court.
Mueller's attorney, Charlie Stegmeyer, was not in the courtroom for Dane's plea. Glazier's attorney, Tom Mansfield, indicated to the court that he would be filing a motion to suppress statements in Glazier's case.
Dane was scheduled to be in court only for a pre-trial hearing. Then, Judge Campanella announced Dane had reached a plea agreement with the Perry County State's Attorney's office.
There was no chance of parole and Dane would be almost 80 at the time of his release.
Judge Campanella called it "a small light at the end of the tunnel."
The other 10 counts were dropped as a result of the plea.
Judge Campanella said that because one of the counts was premeditated murder, Dane could have faced the death penalty even though the death penalty is on the cusp of being abolished in Illinois.