Gavin Porter has passed away. He was 26-years old. Porter is the nephew of Tyler Perry and he allegedly hanged himself while in prison. However, it is believed that the Perry family does not think he committed suicide. Porter was found dead in his cell Tuesday night at a prison facility near St. Helena Parish in Louisiana. The Perry family was reportedly told by prison officials that Porter hung himself with a bedsheet while he was in solitary confinement.

According to law enforcement, Gavin Porter was placed in solitary confinement after he got into a fight with another inmate over the weekend. Guards went by for a normal 6pm checkup and Porter was reportedly doing fine at that particular time. From there, it is believed that he hung himself between the hours of 6pm and 8pm. Guards discovered him dead with bedsheets around his neck at 8pm during another round of checkups. Sheriff Dusty Gates says, "There was no one else in the cell at the time he was found dead." He went on to add that investigators "do not suspect a homicide at this time."

Tyler Perry has yet to publicly comment on the matter, though sources claim the family believes foul play could have been the cause of death. Gavin Porter was serving 20 years in prison for the murder of his biological father, Gary Wayne Porter, on October 17th, 2016. According to police reports, Porter got into an argument with his father in front of his mother and then pulled out a gun and shot him. He later pled no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. As for reasoning why the Perry family believe that Porter may have been murdered in prison, that is unclear at the moment. We'll have to wait for the family to comment on the matter in the near future.

Gavin Porter is the son of Tyler Perry's sister, Melva. While the family may have their doubts about Porter's alleged suicide, Perry has been pretty open about his own suicidal thoughts over the years. Perry revealed he endured several years of abuse at the hands of his father. However, he was able to work through everything later, through the creative process. He explains.

"If any of it had worked, my attempts to kill myself... I wouldn't have gotten to the other side of all the horror. I believe that to everything there's an opposite. So for all of that pain and hell, I was going through as a child, there had to be beauty. I tell anyone who is in pain, 'just keep going. One little step is a step.' As I dug into writing and started understanding the motivations of characters, that helped me understand my own behaviors, I could untie some of those strings and get to full healing."

Unfortunately, Gavin Porter didn't have the chance to work through his demons using creativity. Porter was sentenced to 20 years in prison and had barely only served three of those years before he allegedly hanged himself. RIP. This is a developing story and more news is expected to be released soon. TMZ was the first to report on the story.