ST. LOUIS —
A St. Louis firefighter who was charged Thursday with possessing child sex abuse material died by suicide later that day, police said.
The St. Charles Police Department said Jarret Morton, 50, jumped off the sixth level of the Ameristar Casino parking garage. Police responded at 8:31 p.m. and pronounced Morton dead at the scene.
Morton had been charged earlier that day with two counts of possessing child sex abuse material. A judge issued an at-large warrant Thursday for Morton's arrest, ordering that he be held without bond.
He was employed as a firefighter with the St. Louis Fire Department at the time of the crimes, police said.
According to a probable cause statement, investigators received a tip on Jan. 30 referring to two files constituting child sexual abuse material.
The files were stored on Dropbox, and they were accessed twice on Jan. 11. The screen name used with the Dropbox was Jarret Morton, and his email address contained "stlfd," the acronym for St. Louis Fire Department.
Police identified Morton as the owner of the Dropbox account, and the IP address used to access the files was traced to Engine House No. 5 in the St. Louis Place neighborhood. Police said the files were accessed during times Morton was working at the firehouse and that he had access to the station's secured WiFi.
Police executed a search warrant on Morton's phone and found 221 video files of child sex abuse, court documents said.
St. Charles detectives have completed their initial investigation into Morton's death, but they asked anyone who may have more information on what happened to call the police department at 636-949-3309.
