Effingham County residents are in shock after the sudden death of State Court Judge Stephen Yekel. Deputies found Yekel dead Tuesday morning inside a courthouse courtroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigators say it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s Happening:<\/strong> The Effingham County Sheriff\u2019s Office reports Yekel was discovered around 10 a.m. Investigators believe he died late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will conduct an autopsy. Meanwhile, the Sheriff\u2019s Criminal Investigation Division is handling the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digging Deeper:<\/strong> Yekel had lost his re-election bid earlier this year. He also submitted a resignation letter to Governor Brian Kemp, but Kemp did not accept it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The governor’s office has said it will not comment on an open investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community Reaction:<\/strong> The Effingham County Board of Commissioners expressed condolences, calling Yekel\u2019s death a tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To support courthouse staff and county employees, a crisis response team will be available at the Effingham County Administrative Complex starting at 3 p.m. today. The team will also be available New Year\u2019s Day and Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employees needing additional help can arrange free, face-to-face counseling sessions by calling 1-855-283-1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s Next:<\/strong> Further details about the autopsy and case findings are expected in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=21]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Effingham County residents are in shock after the sudden death of State Court Judge Stephen Yekel. Deputies found Yekel dead Tuesday morning inside a courthouse courtroom. Investigators say it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. What\u2019s Happening: The Effingham County Sheriff\u2019s Office reports Yekel was discovered around 10 a.m. Investigators believe he died late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":214412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15491],"tags":[16875],"class_list":["post-214411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-talk-of-the-town","tag-stephen-yekel","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}