Why do police say no foul play?

Mississippi dismemberment murder of Rasheem Carter; a Black man prompts federal investigation

One day in October, Rasheem Carter sent a chilling final text message to his mother.

The Black 25-year-old told her he was being chased by a group of white men in pickup trucks while they hurled racist abuse at him.

She never heard from him again.

One month later, Carter’s remains were discovered in a wooded area – his head completely severed from his body, according to the family.

So why are Mississippi authorities saying that there are “no signs” of foul play?

Here’s what we know so far about the case:

Disappearance

It was 1 October when Carter sent an ominous text message to his mother.

Carter, a welder who lived in Fayette, Mississippi, had gotten a short-term job as a contractor around 100 miles away in Taylorsville.

His mother Tiffany Carter said that he was saving money to try to get his seafood restaurant back up and running after it was shuttered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Carter reached out to his mother telling her in a detailed text message that he was having issues with his coworkers and feared for his life, Ms Carter said at a press conference on 13 March.

“Me and the owner of this company are not seeing eye to eye,” the message read.

“If anything happens to me [he] is responsible for it… he got these guys wanting to kill me.”

Carter gave his mother the name of the individual he was fearful of and told her that he was being targeted by a group of white men in three trucks.

“My son told me that it was three truckloads of white guys trying to kill him. And at the time that he told me, as a mother, you know, I had to think fast,” she said.

She said she urged him to go straight to a police station “because I felt in my heart they would serve and protect like they are obligated to do”.

Carter did visit the Taylorsville Police Department on two separate occasions prior to his disappearance, reported ABC News.

It is not clear when exactly those incidents were.

But, after that day, Carter’s family didn’t hear from him.

He was reported missing the next day on 2 October.

For a month, Carter’s friends and family conducted searches to try to track down the missing Black man.

Then on 2 November – exactly one month after he was last seen alive – his skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded area south of Taylorsville.

In a statement announcing the discovery, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said that it did not believe there was foul play in his death.

“At this time, we have no reason to believe foul play was involved, but the case is still under investigation,” the department said.

It is not clear what prompted law enforcement to reach that conclusion – or what even led to the discovery of Carter’s remains.

His remains were then transported to the state’s crime lab for DNA confirmation.

The investigation

While saying there was no indication of foul play, investigators asked the public to come forward with any tips about the case.

The MBI and FBI was also assisting in the initial investigation, said Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

Now, more than four months after the 25-year-old’s remains were found, his devastated family is no closer to getting answers as to what happened.

No charges have been brought and his cause of death is unknown.

A spokesperson for the MBI told The Independent on Wednesday that a cause of death has not been determined due to the condition of Carter’s remains.

“Based solely upon the condition of the remains, there was no means by which a cause of death could be reasonably determined by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office,” the spokesperson said.

“The Mississippi Department of Public Safety can offer no further comment or details pertaining to the death and disappearance of Mr Carter due to it being a pending investigation by the Smith County Sheriff’s Department.”

Family demand answers

On Monday, Carter’s grieving family called for the Justice Department to step in and take over the investigation as they described his death as a “murder” and “lynching”.

In a press conference, the family’s attorney – prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump – revealed the results of an independent autopsy into his remains.

Showing graphic images of the Black man’s bones, he said that Carter was decapitated and his remains scattered around the area.

“His head was severed from his body. His vertebrae, his spinal chord was in another spot they discovered away from his severed head,” he said.

He added: “This was not a natural death. This represents a young man who was killed.”

The independent autopsy also revealed that Carter’s bottom and top front teeth were missing, suggesting he was assaulted.

“There is nothing natural about this. It screams out for justice. What we have is a Mississippi lynching,” he said.

Mr Crump also said that someone had tried to use Carter’s credit card at a time when he was now known to have already died.

“This was a nefarious act. This was an evil act,” he said.

“Somebody murdered Rasheem Carter, and we cannot let them get away with this.”

Mr Crump and Carter’s family are urging the DOJ to take over the investigation as a civil rights case following what they say is a months-long stonewalling by local authorities.

The Independent has reached out to the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.

A spokesperson for FBI Jackson said that “the FBI routinely offers assistance to our law enforcement partners, to provide additional manpower and specialized resources, if they become necessary”.

The Laurel Police Department, the Smith County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations are the lead investigating agencies on the case, the spokesperson said. source

Mississippi dismemberment murder of Black man prompts federal investigation

MS police did not elaborate on how they discovered Carter’s remains in a wooded area

The family of a Mississippi man whose dismembered body was found in November said his newly released autopsy report shows he was murdered, and they called for a federal investigation into the case Monday.

Rasheem Carter, 25, was last seen on Oct. 2 at a hotel in Laurel. On Nov. 2, his decomposing body was found in a wooded area about 21 miles away in Taylorsville. At a news conference Monday alongside Carter’s family, Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, said the Justice Department should take up the case after local police said they had no reason to believe the man’s death was the result of foul play.

“One thing is for certain,” Crump said. “This was not a natural death. This represents a young man who was killed.”In a statement on social media, the Smith County Sheriff’s Department did not elaborate on why they believed there was no foul play or what led them to the wooded area where Carter’s remains were found.

Crump said Carter’s autopsy revealed his head was severed from his body, and some of his body parts were found in different locations.

“What that tells us is this was a nefarious act, an evil act,” Crump said. “Someone murdered Rasheem Carter, and we cannot let them get away with this.”

His family said the day before his disappearance, Carter, who is Black, went to the Taylorsville Police Department and reported that he feared for his safety because men were after him, WAPT-TV reported. They say they believe his killing is racially motivated. source