Outside help should be brought in to determine exactly what happened on the inside at the Lawrence County Jail.

The sheriff’s office is investigating the details that surround the July arrest and incarceration of 29-year-old Amanda Triplett after the woman died in a hospital a month later.

Triplett was arrested on domestic violence charges and spent much of four days in jail before becoming ill. At that point she was released on her own recognizance and transported to an area hospital.

What happened in the days to follow remains a question mark.

Sheriff Jeff Lawless has initiated an internal investigation to determine what role — if any — her time in jail played in this tragic situation.

Although preliminary information makes it appear unlikely that the jail or her time in custody had an impact on her death, the sheriff is smart to look at every bit of information just to be safe.

In fact, he should go one step farther and seek assistance from an outside agency like the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

This avenue would ensure that every possibility is analyzed and every scenario is considered.

Taking these extra precautionary steps will help extinguish rumors in the community and prevent this issue or others like it from being blamed on jail administrators who are faced with circumstances beyond their control.

We appreciate the Triplett family’s need for privacy during this unimaginably difficult time of losing a loved one but feel it is in the public’s best interest if all the answers are put out in the open.

Doing that, in a way that will be beyond reproach, is best accomplished with outside eyes looking in.