A Lehigh County man who was found guilty of rape after he was accused of sexually molesting a teen friend of his step-daughter over the course of several years — including being discovered with the victim in Mexico by federal agents at one point — was found dead in his prison cell overnight, officials said.
On Monday, the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office said Kevin Esterly, 53, of Whitehall Township, was found unresponsive in a single cell at the Lehigh County Jail at about 2:16 a.m.
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He was taken to a nearby hospital where, officials said, he was pronounced.
Though the coroner’s office did not disclose a cause of death for Esterly, the office did say an autopsy was done on Monday and Esterly’s manner of death has been ruled a suicide.
An investigation into Esterly’s death was still underway, officials said.
Esterly had been incarcerated after being found guilty in March of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children.
At his trial, a victim told the court that she was 8-years-old when she first met Esterly as a friend of his step-daughter. When she was 13-years-old, the woman — now 24-years-old — told the court that Esterly began to sexually assault her after plying her with drugs and alcohol.
The abuse, she said, continued for several years.
According to the woman, Esterly gave her cocaine and methamphetamine to keep her awake during school because she “would be up with him all night,” during the abuses.
Esterly was later arrested after federal agents found him with the victim — who was 16-years-old at the time — in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in 2018.
At that time, he was convicted of corruption of minors and sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison. But, his sexual abuse of the victim was not initially disclosed.
Allentown Police received a new report of Esterly’s sexual assaults in February of last year, which led to the new charges being filed against him.
He was apprehended in West Virginia in June 2025 after two police pursuits and was then extradited to Pennsylvania.
Esterly was in prison awaiting sentencing that was scheduled for June 30, 2026. He was facing 43 to 87 years in prison and would have been required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.