Autopsy: Embolism caused death of Wichita woman serving life sentence in prison

The 36-year-old Wichita woman who collapsed while serving a life sentence in the Topeka Correctional Facility for the May 2007 killing of her 20-month-old daughter died of a blood clot, according to an autopsy.

Asa Hashanna Adams died on May 4, 2024. She had been at the all-women’s prison since September 2008, when she was 21.

She had been walking around the prison dorm and collapsed while walking down a hallway, the autopsy says. CPR was unsuccessful; she was pronounced dead at 11:42 a.m., the autopsy says.

“A bilateral ropy granular saddle type antemortem blood clot consistent with pulmonary embolism was identified,” the medical examiner wrote in the autopsy. “Based on examination findings and investigative information, the decedent expires due to complication of pulmonary embolism. The manner of death is natural.”

Adams was convicted in the death of her 20-month-old daughter, Shymir Turner, who died six days after EMS was called when the girl had a seizure in the bath tub. The girl had blunt-force trauma to the head and body, and scalding burns to her legs from the bath.