Questions continue to mount in the death of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, the Black woman who was found hanging from her Texas jail cell three days after she was arrested and booked following a routine traffic stop.
According to newly released Waller County Jail intake forms, Bland allegedly says on two separate documents that she had attempted suicide in the past, taking pills after losing a baby. However, there are discrepancies between the two forms.
NBC News says that one form lists a suicide attempt in 2014, while the other one says 2015. On one form, she wrote that she hadn’t considered suicide in the last year, while the other one said that she had. On both forms, though, it was written that though she was feeling depressed on that particular day, she wasn’t suicidal.
In March, Bland posted a video on Facebook detailing her battles with depression and PTSD, but family members, who said they had no knowledge of a previous suicide attempt, doubt that she would take her own life.
“We take issue with the notion she was suffering from depression,” Bland family lawyer Cannon Lamber said in a statement. “Everyone has hills and valleys.”
Earlier today, Bland’s friend, LaVaughn Mosley, released audio of a voicemail that Bland had left him shortly after she was taken into custody.
“I’m still just at a loss for words honestly about this whole process,” she said. “How this switching lanes with no signal turned into all of this. I don’t even know. Um, but I’m still here.”
The case is currently under investigation by both the Texas Rangers and the FBI, who said that they are treating this case as a murder investigation. An autopsy report that was just released reportedly shows scarring on Bland’s arms, suggesting cutting attempts that were inflicted within two weeks of her death. A medical examiner also said that marijuana was found in her system. A Waller County prosecutor claims that the autopsy was defective and is demanding a second one.