ST. PETER, Minn. (AP) - An outside review has been ordered in the recent suicide of a mentally ill and chemically dependent patient at a state facility in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Reports the investigation comes amid employee and union allegations that a staffing shortage contributed to 28-year-old Logan Brodal's death Sunday night. He was found unconscious in the exercise room at the facility.

Deputy Human Services Commissioner Anne Barry says she ordered an independent examiner to look into Brodal's death "because so many questions are being raised."

Brodal's suicide is the first in a state-operated care facility in the past four years. To eliminate a budget shortfall, the Minnesota Department of Human Services has moved to cut the treatment program Brodal was in at St. Peter, among others.

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