Booking photo of Ernie Tichenor

Officials in Loudoun County, Va., have confirmed that former College of the Canyons trustee Ernest L. “Ernie” Tichenor took his own life.

Tichenor’s body was found Friday morning in Virginia, where he’d been living. Later that same day he was scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty July 27 to attempting to solicit a 13-year-old Loudoun County girl over the Internet.

An official with the medical examiner’s office (equivalent to the coroner’s office) in Leesburg said the death was ruled a suicide by asphyxiation. She was not authorized to discuss any details including the time or location of death.

Tichenor, 56, was thrice elected to the COC board. He served from 1997 to 2009 and left the Santa Clarita Valley prior to the expiration of his third term, saying his job as an IRS agent was taking him to the Washington, D.C., area.

COC officials credited Tichenor with helping lead the college through a “dynamic period of growth” that included the property purchase, development and 2007 opening of COC’s Canyon Country campus.

For more information about Tichenor’s guilty plea, [click here].