- Loskarn (right) with Sen. Alexander before his arrest
Ryan Loskarn, the former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) who was arrested in December for on federal charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, has been found dead, an apparent suicide, at the Maryland home of his parents, where he had been confined since his arrest.
Alexander, who fired Loskarn upon getting news of his arrest in December, responded to his former aide’s death with this statement: “For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end,”
Here’s the official announcement of Loskarn’s death, from unidentified law-enforcement sources, in an Associated Press account:
“At approximately 12pm yesterday, Carroll County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a private residence in the 6400 block of Kenmar Lane for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased,” the Carroll County, Md. sheriff’s office said in a statement on Friday. “Family members reported finding 35 year old Jesse Ryan Loskarn unresponsive in his basement where he’d been residing with family since this past December. The preliminary investigation indicates that Loskarn may have taken his own life, and his body has since been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for Autopsy. The investigation continues…”
Loskarn had been a rising star in the D.C. firmament, having served in staff roles of increasing prominence for the last decade. He had worked in the offices of various Republican members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-7th, TN), whom he served as press secretary from 2003 to 2007.
In this role, he had been a frequent contact person for the Flyer and other local and state news media.
