Ronnie Romero, who had long been a "person of interest" in the disappearance of his younger brother Robbie eight years ago , died in his Santa Fe County jail cell
 Sunday morning of unknown causes.

Investigators are looking into whether drugs played a role, while Romero’s mother blamed recent heart troubles.

One inmate told a jail officer he saw Romero taking "crushed pills" the night before, said Sheriff Greg Solano, who said an autopsy will be performed today and that toxicology results could take two to three months.

"We didn't find any drugs in his cell, but we will be looking at whether he did use drugs last night and whether that did contribute to his death," Solano said.

The 31-year-old Romero, who was serving time for a probation violation since late February, was found dead about 10 a.m. after another inmate told an officer who was distributing medications that Romero didn't look good. The officer found Romero dead, although efforts were made to revive him.

Solano said Romero shared Cell 503 with one other inmate. "His cell mate said he heard him snoring earlier in the morning," Solano said. The cell is part of a shared pod of other cells, and it was an inmate from another cell who reported Romero's condition.

Romero, who had legal troubles dating back to 2000, recently spent 30 days outside jail on medical furlough and had returned behind bars Friday night, said Solano, who didn't know the nature of Romero's medical issues.

Romero's mother, Evelyn Romero, sobbed in her kitchen Sunday afternoon while trying to absorb the news of her son's death.

"I lost Robbie, I lost my husband and now I've lost Ronnie," she said at her Bellamah Drive home in south Santa Fe.

She said Ronnie Romero had called her from jail in the summer complaining of heart palpitations after playing basketball. She said he was due to be released next February or March. Evelyn Romero said a judge granted him furlough for medical reasons. "He said after he went back to his cell that his heart just felt funny," she said of her son. She said he had been diagnosed with a leaky aortic valve as a teenager.

While out of jail, Ronnie Romero was under close surveillance and was required to wear an ankle bracelet, undergo regular breath-alcohol checks, call his probation officer daily and take random urine tests, family members said. He had to stay on the family property, where he lived with his wife and two children, ages 5 and 3.

Ronnie Romero suffered from alcoholism and came to appreciate being under the close watch of authorities, his mother said. "He said to me, 'Mom, if they had given me the Breathalyzer since Day 1, I think I could've done it,' " she said.

She said Ronnie Romero had recently discussed wanting to become an X-ray technician. " 'But I just have to behave' — that's what he told me," Evelyn Romero said.

She said Ronnie Romero stayed busy during his medical furlough with strenuous yardwork that included jack-hammering concrete and moving gravel in the front yard. "Ronnie was the type that he had to stay busy," she said.

Ronnie Romero was never charged in the June 7, 2000, disappearance of his brother, 7-year-old Robbie, but Santa Fe police believe Robbie is dead despite never finding his body.

"Certainly based on the information we have, we always felt the investigation was going in the right direction," said police Capt. Gary Johnson, the longtime supervisor of the investigation. "We're just hoping that anyone with any information would feel at ease to come forward now and put the grieving of this family to rest once and for all."

An investigative grand jury looked into the case in early 2006, and no indictments resulted. No one has been charged in the case, and no one has been labeled a suspect.

Just before the grand jury met, Santa Fe police, state police and the FBI spent four days searching an area near the city's sold waste transfer station.

Ronnie Romero's legal troubles mainly involved cocaine, and he had been in and out of jail since he pleaded guilty in 2006 to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and assault on a household member. The charges involved an incident at Evelyn Romero's home in 2005.

A police report said officers found cocaine on Ronnie Romero and in his home. Later, at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, he grabbed a nurse who was trying to give him an injection, pulled the needle out of his leg and stabbed the nurse in the thumb. Ronnie Romero had hepatitis C at the time and could have infected the nurse, according to a plea agreement.

The plea deal called for Ronnie Romero to be on house arrest for two years followed by 18 months on probation. It also called for Romero, who had tested positive for cocaine the month before the deal was signed, to remain sober.

Days later, Ronnie Romero reported drunk to the Santa Fe County Electronic Monitoring Program with a breath-alcohol content of .21.

In November 2006, Judge Vigil sentenced Ronnie Romero to serve the remaining six months of his two-year sentence in jail. Last February, Vigil sentenced him to serve the remaining year left on his 18-month probation sentence for overdosing on cocaine.

Capt. Johnson encouraged anyone with information about Robbie's disappearance to call Detective Robert Vasquez at 955-5038.

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.