A New London special education teacher charged with sexual assault of a minor was found dead on Friday and his death has been ruled a suicide.
Jeffrey Francis, 23, of Durham, a teacher at the Inter-district School for Arts and Communication in New London, was arrested by Wallingford police Wednesday.
State Police received a call Friday morning after Francis left his home and didn't return.
They found his car near Beseck Lake in Middlefield a short time later.
Dive teams searched the lake and located Francis' body in the water. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators said there did not appear to be any criminal aspect to Francis' death, his body was sent to the State Medical Examiner's office for an autopsy and it was ruled a suicide.
Francis met a juvenile in a social networking chat room in April 2010, according to Wallingford police, and opened a private Facebook account under a pseudonym to communicate with the juvenile, police said.
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In January 2011, the two began to meet in person.
The juvenile’s parent contacted Wallingford police on May 15 to report that the child was involved in a sexual relationship with an adult.
On Wednesday, Wallingford Police Detectives arrested Francis at his house and served a search warrant for his personal computers, cellular phones and other items.
Francis was charged with two counts of sexual assault in the second degree and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. He was listed as a resource teacher for 6th and 7th grades.
