MIAMI COUNTY, IND. (WOWO) A Miami County coroner has ruled that an immigrant detainee who died at a north-central Indiana prison passed away from natural causes.

Miami County Coroner John Boyer said an autopsy determined that 63-year-old Lorth Sim died from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with diabetes mellitus listed as another significant contributing condition.

The condition involves the buildup of plaque in the walls of arteries and is commonly associated with heart disease.

Sim was found unresponsive in his cell on Feb. 16 at the Miami Correctional Facility. Facility staff and emergency medical responders attempted lifesaving measures before he was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m.

The prison began housing detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in October under a two-year agreement with the federal government. The arrangement allows the state facility to hold up to 1,000 detainees at a daily payment rate of $294 per bed.

Sim originally entered the United States as a refugee in 1983 and became a lawful permanent resident three years later. An immigration judge ordered his removal to Cambodia in 2006 after several earlier criminal cases that resulted in probation and suspended sentences.

Federal immigration officers encountered Sim at an agency office in Boston late last year and took him into custody under a removal warrant before transferring him to Chicago ICE custody and later to the Indiana facility.

At the time of his death, Sim was the seventh immigrant to die in ICE custody in 2026, according to data compiled by immigration analyst Austin Kocher, as reported by Indiana Capital Chronicle.