Man Accused of Rape Found Dead in Hospital Parking Lot: Police

A 27-year-old man who most recently lived in St. Charles and faced charges for raping and choking a woman was found dead Tuesday in a hospital parking lot, police said, after he shot himself, the Daily Herald reports.

Michael Griffin, who had a recent address on Meadowlark Court in St. Charles, was found in the front seat of his car at 9:59 a.m. in the hospital parking lot at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin after missing a 9:30 a.m. court hearing, according to the Daily Herald.

Griffin is accused of raping a 26-year-old woman he met at a bar in Chicago in February 2012, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He was invited back to the woman’s apartment in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood where prosecutors said he forced the woman into sex several times. When the woman tried to get away, prosecutors said, Griffin dragged her back into the apartment by her ankles and strangled her until she was unconscious, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Griffin had worked at one point as a youth soccer coach, the newspaper reports.

Griffin was expected in court Tuesday for a pretrial status hearing, the Elgin Courier-News reports. He had been free on bail after posting $75,000 of the $750,000 bail and faced aggravated criminal sexual assault and unlawful restraint charges, the newspaper reports.