By Beth Alston

AMERICUS — A female inmate of the Sumter County Jail took her own life early Sunday.
According to a press release from Sumter County Sheriff Pete Smith, at approximately 5:45 a.m., the jail staff notified the in-house medical department of an unresponsive inmate. The medical staff contacted EMS personnel and the detainee was pronounced dead.
The investigation was turned over to the Americus Region 3 Office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Special Agent in Charge, Danny Jackson, identified the inmate as Amanda Shay Traywick, 39. Booking information indicates she is from Tifton. Jackson said the inmate had been brought into the jail and placed in a cell by herself. She was later found dead, having hung herself with the cord of a telephone inside the cell.
Sumter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Col. Eric Bryant told the Times-Recorder that Traywick was booked into the jail at 3:15 a.m.
Traywick had already had contact with law enforcement the previous evening. Americus Police were called to a residence in the 1300 block of Ridge Street at 8:53 p.m. Saturday to a call regarding a pedestrian having been struck by a vehicle. There they found a woman, identified as Traywick, on the ground being treated by EMS. They noticed she had a cut on her knee and abrasions to her left foot.
According to the police report, Traywick told police that she didn’t remember being struck by a vehicle. The investigating officer observed that she was “extremely intoxicated.” She was taken by EMS to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center. People at the residence on Ridge Street told police that Traywick was not supposed to be there and had appeared and started an altercation so they left.
Police were called at 2:35 a.m. Sunday to the area of Crawford Street and Oglethorpe Avenue to a report of someone lying in a ditch. The woman was identified as Traywick, and she was taken to the Sumter County Jail and charged with public drunkenness.