The family of a man discovered dead in the shower room of a privately owned immigration detention center says the Trump administration is refusing to provide the full story of what happened.
Chaofeng Ge, 32, was an undocumented immigrant from China who lived in New York City, where he drove ride-shares and delivered packages.
"He was a very down-to-earth person, very industrious person," his brother Yanfeng Ge told Scripps News in an interview using a Mandarin-speaking interpreter.
Police arrested Chaofeng in January for fraud after he participated in a gift card scheme, Yanfeng said.
After he finished a short sentence in jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Chaofeng into custody on July 31 to begin deportation proceedings.
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ICE transferred Chaofeng to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in central Pennsylvania. It is the largest ICE detention center in the northeast and is owned by the for-profit GEO Group.
Four days after Chaofeng's arrival, a guard found him before dawn hanging in a shower stall by a torn bed sheet.
He was pronounced dead.
"I couldn't even believe it myself," Yanfeng said. "It was only after watching the news, I pinched myself and I felt the pain. That's when I started to realize it was real. It was a nightmare. He was suffering too much in there."
ICE's detainee death report says a Moshannon detention officer "found Mr. Ge with a cloth ligature around his neck in a shower stall."
The autopsy report by a Pennsylvania coroner obtained by Scripps News is much more detailed. It lists suicide by hanging as Chaofeng's cause of death and also says, "he was found with his hands and feet tied behind his back."
"How were his hands and feet tied behind his back? Was he able to do that himself? Was he assisted? We don't know," said Jeremy Ravinsky, Yanfeng's attorney.
The autopsy report also shows the medical examiner was initially unsure what to make of the tied hands and feet until he searched medical literature and found "a few references to patients binding their hands and feet prior to suicide by hanging."
Ravinsky says the federal government is refusing to share all the records it has about Chaofeng's death, including photographs taken at the scene referenced in the autopsy report.
"We don't know anything," Ravinsky said.
He has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Yanfeng against ICE and DHS, demanding the release of "improperly withheld records."
"The family wants accountability," Ravinsky said. "Chaofeng was in the United States government's custody. It was their obligation to keep him safe, and they failed to do that. Regardless of whether or not he was here legally, his life mattered."
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A Scripps News investigation this summer found complaints about a lack of mental health services at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center from before Chaofeng died.
There were documented instances of detainees placed on suicide watch. Detainees desperate to see a judge wrote habeas corpus petitions filed in a small federal courthouse in Johnstown, Penn.
One petition said Moshannon "discontinued the 15-minute wellness checks" for a detainee who "experienced several severe panic attacks, including one that led to his hospitalization after a suicide attempt."
Another report came from an immigrant with "persistent anxiety" who had "planned to ingest soap or bleach to commit suicide."
A detainee from Nigeria spoke to Scripps News from inside the lock-up, detailing her own thoughts of self-harm.
"To commit suicide, to kill myself, because of what is going on with the pain and all," the detainee said in a telephone interview. Scripps News agreed to keep her anonymous so she could speak without fear of retaliation inside the detention center. "When I think about my two kids, I keep myself -- and be strong. I've never been locked up like this in my life."
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ICE disputed her account, saying in a statement: "She has had numerous visits with medical staff and has refused recommended treatments."
Scripps News also heard complaints about a lack of translation services at Moshannon Valley. Communication was reportedly a struggle for Chaofeng as well.
"Mr. Ge was isolated because no one in the facility could speak Mandarin," the lawsuit says.
"Staff refused to even try to communicate with him, much less offer him the mental health care that he so urgently needed," the filing says.
The GEO Group has said it provides "around the clock access to medical care ... and translation services."
The ICE detainee death report for Chaofeng says he spoke to a Mandarin language interpreter when he arrived at Moshannon and denied having "any past medical or mental health conditions," but his brother says Chaofeng had talked about hurting himself for months.
"When he was arrested, he did say he felt suicidal," Yanfeng said. "But saying words are very, very, different from doing it."
The GEO Group referred questions to ICE.
The Department of Homeland Security responded with a statement that said the agency received Yanfeng's request for information about Chaofeng's death just before the government shutdown, and that Freedom of Information Act requests "will be responded to through the proper channels."
The statement also said suicides in DHS custody are tragic and rare.
At least 15 detainees have died in ICE custody this year, including two other apparent suicides.
Yanfeng lawsuit is asking for all records related to his brother's detention, his treatment by staff at Moshannon Valley and any documents that detail why and how his brother died.
"I want to get to the truth," Yanfeng said, "what exactly he experienced, how he suffered, so I can more deeply feel for myself, his suffering."
