Michigan prison staff dismissed inmate's blood-clot symptoms as lies days before her fatal pulmonary embolism

On May 13, 2026, Khaira Howard, 28, died at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan's only women's prison, days before a scheduled parole release the week of May 25. Tina Stoll, a prisoner-observation aide assigned to monitor fellow prisoners, said Howard reported she had no feeling in her legs and that staff "kept calling her a liar." Stoll said Howard was "sounding like she was hallucinating" the night before she was found unresponsive and pronounced dead the next day.

Howard's mother separately told reporters her daughter had "cried out for help" in the days before her death and that the facility had not provided medication for her schizophrenia, though the department has not addressed that specific claim. The Michigan Department of Corrections said it did not suspect foul play and that staff and EMS attempted life-saving measures.

An autopsy the department released July 9, 2026 found Howard's cause of death was a pulmonary thromboembolism caused by a deep vein thrombosis in her lower leg -- the county medical examiner's own finding independently confirming the specific symptom Stoll said staff had dismissed as a lie. The Michigan Department of Corrections said it is investigating the events leading up to Howard's death and would release findings publicly.

Howard's death was the first of five deaths at Women's Huron Valley within about three months in 2026, a rate the department has said far exceeds its typical five to six deaths per year facility-wide. Michigan's internal affairs division later opened a review of Howard's death alongside two of the other four -- Rebecca Fackler and Ashley Hoath -- for whether staff followed policy.