Tom Capano (left)
Tom Capano (left) Reuters

Thomas J. Capano, the prominent Delaware attorney who was convicted in the 1996 murder of the governor's secretary, Anne Marie Fahey, was found dead Monday in his jail cell at the state prison near Smyrna. He was 61.

Capano, who was serving a life sentence for the high-profile murder, had been held in solitary confinement since his November 1997 arrest. Earlier, he had been on death row before his death sentence was overturned.

According to the News-Journal in Wilmington, Del., the circumstances surrounding his death aren't yet known.

Prison and law enforcement officials are reportedly headed to the prison to determine cause of death.

However, at this point, no foul play is suspected.

Fahey was the scheduling secretary for then-Gov. Tom Carper, now Delaware's senior senator. Fahey was reported missing in June 1996 after a dinner date with Capano. It later emerged that Capano murdered Fahey and dumped her body in the Atlantic Ocean with help from his brother Gerry.