- The autopsy of Rasheem Carter revealed unsettling details about his demise, prompting his family to call for a federal inquiry.
- Carter was declared missing on October 2, 2022, after he sought aid from the authorities and urgently contacted his mother to report being chased by Caucasian men in three trucks.
- On November 2, 2022, law enforcement uncovered his skeletal remains, including his skull and certain vertebrae.
- The initial statement from the Smith County Sheriff’s Department indicated that they had no grounds to suspect foul play, despite the case being under investigation.
- On Monday, Carter’s family and their lawyer, Ben Crump, criticized local authorities for obstructing them for over four months and for the preliminary conclusion.
The family of Rasheem Carter, a 25-year-old Black man who was located deceased in a wooded area south of Taylorsville, Mississippi, after being pursued by white men hurling racial insults, is demanding a federal investigation into his death.
Carter was reported missing on October 2, 2022, after he sought aid from the authorities and urgently contacted his mother to report being chased by Caucasian men in three trucks.
On November 2, 2022, law enforcement uncovered his skeletal remains, including his skull and certain vertebrae.
The initial statement from the Smith County Sheriff’s Department indicated that they had no grounds to suspect foul play, despite the case being under investigation.
On Monday, Carter’s family and their lawyer, Ben Crump, criticized local authorities for obstructing them for over four months and for the preliminary conclusion.
They believe that Carter was the victim of a brutal hate crime and urged the Justice Department to take over the investigation as a civil rights case.
Crump disclosed photographs of Carter’s skeletal remains and indicated that he believes Carter’s head was separated from his body, and his spinal cord was discovered in another location away from his head.
Carter’s front teeth were absent from the top and bottom rows, a detail his family believes indicates that he was assaulted prior to his demise.
The Laurel Police Department, which issued Carter’s missing person report, was involved in the early stages of the case following a request for assistance from Carter’s family.
The department obtained some phone records and potentially interviewed some of Carter’s co-workers, but declined to provide further details.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is aiding the sheriff in its investigation, although the FBI is not currently involved in the case.
Three members of Carter’s family stated that authorities informed them that wild animals may have dismembered his body.
However, Carter’s mother claimed that her son was coherent about the threats he faced during their final phone calls, stating that he was sober, had no history of mental illness, and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
She had suspicions about the accidental nature of her son’s death even before seeing where his remains were found.
Carter, a welder from Fayette, Mississippi, was in Taylorsville, approximately 100 miles away from home, working a short-term contracting assignment.
His mother revealed that he was saving money to reopen his seafood restaurant, which closed during the pandemic and was named after his 7-year-old daughter, Cali.
While at the job site in October, Carter quarreled with at least one co-worker and fled, fearing for his life, his mother disclosed.
Carter’s family and friends led their own search parties until his remains were discovered.
His mother vowed to continue seeking answers, affirming, “They believed this would be an overlooked case. They are mistaken. He mattered.”
