Prison reports suicide of man who killed mother, stepfather

LUMBERTON, N.C. – Authorities say a North Carolina inmate serving a life sentence for killing his mother and stepfather has died in an apparent suicide.

The state Department of Public Safety issued a news release saying that 42-year-old Gerard Altman was found unresponsive Monday in the inmate dormitory at Lumberton Correctional Institution. He was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Altman was sentenced to life in 2011 after pleading guilty to killing his 58-year-old mother and 70-year-old stepfather. The couple was found dead in 2009 in their home in the Ogden area near Wilmington. Prosecutors used DNA evidence and bloody footprints to link Altman to the crime scene.