NIANTIC, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut prisons officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a woman being held for allegedly violating a protection order.

A Department of Correction spokesman says 32-year-old Monica Piette, of East Haddam, was found in her cell at York Correctional Institution in Niantic at about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday by a guard on routine patrol with a ligature around her neck. She was the only inmate in the cell at the time.

She was taken to a New London hospital and was pronounced dead on Thursday night.

She had been at the prison since Dec. 16 on $92,500 bail.

An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause and manner of death.