Questions linger about second autopsy in Mississippi lynching death

It has been 23 days since Delta State University (DSU) student Demartravion “Trey” Reed, 21, was found hanging from a tree on campus on Sept. 15. His death was quickly ruled a suicide by local and state officials, a finding his family has disputed after a second autopsy allegedly reported blunt force trauma to the back of his head. The conflicting results have fueled continuing calls for an independent investigation and drawn national attention to the Mississippi Lynching case.

The controversial case has drawn national attention as civil rights leaders warn that it reflects what some describe as a growing trend of “lynching by suicide.” The term refers to scores of recent cases in which the deaths of African Americans found hanging are officially ruled suicides, but are viewed by families, activists and advocates as possible racially-motivated homicides disguised as self-inflicted deaths, including instances related to Mississippi Lynching.

“Lynching by suicide” has fueled concern among civil rights groups, social justice, human rights and community leaders, who argue that such rulings risk masking racial violence and eroding public trust in investigations surrounding incidents like the Mississippi Lynching.

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, activists decried the suspicious hanging of Cory Zukatis, a 35-year-old white homeless man, whose manner of death on the same day as Reed’s has been ruled as “undetermined” by local and state authorities. He was found in a wooded area.

In the case of Reed, Bolivar County Coroner Randolph Seals Jr. said initial findings showed the student’s body had no bruises, lacerations, fractures or other signs of an assault. Local law enforcement, working with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, treated the case as an apparent suicide from the start. The state medical examiner’s office later confirmed the cause of death as hanging and ruled the manner of death a suicide.

Reed’s family requested a second autopsy to review the case. According to a verified source who requested anonymity because they were asked not to publicly reveal results, the independent report showed Reed died of blunt force trauma to the back of his head. But the results on the manner of death were ruled “inconclusive.”

The young man’s body was found in the only area of the DSU campus that had no cameras. Authorities initially told Reed’s family they had video evidence that he killed himself, according to Jeremey Marquell Bridges, a national activist and organizer. However, he said, “The video just showed him walking in front of his girlfriend’s dorm talking on his cell phone,” Bridges noted. “It was well known by everybody at DSU that was the only spot where there’s no cameras. That happens to be the spot where the white students hang out all night and party.”

Following the lynching, DSU officials installed new cameras. Incidentally, Reed, who disappeared sometime around 10 p.m. Sunday night, was discovered about 7 a.m. the following morning, despite campus employee activity in the area allegedly being reported as early as 5:30 a.m.

“I am 100 percent convinced Travion was murdered, strangled or hit in the head and killed first and then he was put in that tree,” the source told the Crusader, who broke the story on October 4th. “(We) will not stop seeking justice. They want us to accept that he turned in a mandatory paper and then out of the blue decided to go outside and lynch himself with a belt three times his size; and, while dying, he sent his girlfriend a text message ‘bout why the belt buckle was missing.”

“We know he got into it with some white boys at DSU, the relative continued, audibly distraught. “If (Mamie Till Mobley) hadn’t opened up her son’s casket, police would have lied and said he ran away from home or that Emmett Till beat himself up, put a gin around his own neck and threw himself in that river.”

Reed’s mother and local activists in Cleveland, Mississippi, where DSU is located, also said they have demanded a federal investigation, but due to cuts to the FBI’s civil rights division and growing hostilities against African Americans, they remain doubtful justice will be served.

Bridges said African American students on the Delta campus had been complaining of racial harassment and intimidation since the start of the school year. He said complaints rose following the September 10 shooting death of white nationalist Charlie Kirk on a Utah university campus. Reed was found dead five days later, yards away from a makeshift memorial honoring Kirk.

Civil rights groups, including the Mississippi NAACP, have urged authorities to release all records and communicate findings more clearly to the public. The community continues to hold vigils and memorials as the case remains under scrutiny. Reed’s family is represented (civilly) by celebrity attorney Ben Crump.

Crump could not be reached for comment.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes and groups across the U.S., noted that at least eight people have been lynched in Mississippi since 2000. This week, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that he had stopped collaborating with the human rights group via his verified social media account, stating, “Under this FBI, all ties with the SPLC have been officially terminated.”

In May of this year, SPLC’s “hate map,” listed Kirk’s Turning Point USA, a hard-right, conservative youth-based organization that was reportedly flagged by the SPLC because it espoused Christian white supremacy, anti-Black, anti-female, anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant views.