The family calls it a modern-day 'lynching,' but cops say it seems like animals did it. Here's what we really know about Rasheem Carter's death.
- The family of Rasheem Carter has alleged his death is a modern-day "lynching."
- Carter's family says he said he was being pursued by white men in trucks before he went missing.
The family of Rasheem Carter — a 25-year-old Black man from Fayette, Mississippi, who was found dead last year — has alleged his death is a modern-day "lynching."
They've accused local police of failing to investigate the crime and said Carter warned he was being pursued by white men in trucks before he vanished.
But police have insisted there is "no evidence" to suggest there was any foul play and have speculated that animals may have ripped Carter's body up.
Here's what we know about Carter's death as protestors and the young man's family call have called for a federal investigation.
Carter was worried he would be killed in October 2022
Carter's mother, Tiffany Carter, said during a press conference in March that her son called her on October 1, 2022 — a day before she reported him missing.
"My son told me it was three truckloads of white guys trying to kill him," she said, explaining that she told him to go to the local police station in Taylorsville, Mississippi, for help.
She told local station WDAM in December that her son wanted a ride back to Laurel, where he lived, but police didn't drive him back.
"They did not help him," the mother said during Monday's press conference. "He asked for help but they did not help."
Taylorsville Police Chief Gabe Horn later told WDAM that he didn't assign a police officer to return Rasheem home because of staffing shortages.
"He told the officer that night that he and his roommates had a verbal disagreement and he felt threatened and that was it," Horn told the outlet. He said officers offered to let the man stay at the police department, but that Rasheem left.
Sheriff Joel Houston of the Smith County Sheriff's Office, which is handling the investigation into Rasheem's death, told the Vicksburg Daily News in a report published in November that the man didn't say he was in danger when he went to the police.
"To them, he never seemed to be in any distress or anything and he never mentioned anything about being in immediate danger," Houston told the news outlet.
"They offered him a phone call and he said he had a phone and they even offered him a charger but the charger that was available didn't fit his phone, so he was just trying to find a ride back to Laurel when he came in contact with police," Houston said.
The Taylorsville Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Insider.
After his phone call, Tiffany Carter said her son texted her to say he and a business owner — whose identity she did not reveal — were not "seeing eye to eye."
"If anything happened to me, he's responsible for it. I'm too smart mama, he got these guys wanting to kill me," Rasheem texted, according to his mom.
Tiffany Carter described her son to Insider as "a great man" and "entrepreneur" who "loved to cook" and "always wanted to leave a legacy" for his 7-year-old daughter.
Carter was reported missing on October 2
On October 2, 2022, Rasheem's family reported him missing to Mississippi's Laurel Police Department, which said in a Facebook post that the man had been last seen that day at a local Super 8 hotel.
Laurel Police Chief Tommy Cox confirmed to Insider that the department was told at the time that Rasheem Carter had been staying at the hotel for work purposes and was traveling to Taylorsville about 20 miles away for his job.
Rasheem's mother told Insider was a welder by trade, but was working as a millwright in Taylorsville.
According to the missing person report, the mother told police that her son warned in a prior phone call that "three white trucks full of men [were] trying to kill him," Cox told Insider.
Cox told Insider that police were "fairly certain" that Rasheem had gone missing in nearby Taylorsville and later verified that he was last seen there.
Carter was spotted on a trail camera shirtless the day he was reported missing
Rasheem was captured on a trail camera in the Mississippi woods shirtless and carrying what appears to be a large branch on the day he was reported missing.
His mother told Insider that the wildlife camera image of her son shows that "something was wrong" and that he was "running for his life."
"You could see there are bruises on him," Rasheem's mother, Tiffany Carter, told Insider of the October 2, 2022 image with a time stamp of 4:32 p.m. "When I see that picture, I know my son was somewhere struggling, somewhere running for his life."
"I really believe he was chased there," Tiffany Carter said.
Houston, the Smith County sheriff, told Insider that investigators reviewed all the deer cam footage from the day Rasheem Carter was spotted on it and said it "doesn't show anybody else present."
"He's the only one on the camera," Houston said. Houston also said the "bruises" his mother described appear to be shadows.
Carter's remains were discovered a month later in Taylorsville
The Smith County Sheriff's Office said it found Rasheem Carter's remains on November 2, 2022, just south of Taylorsville in a wooded area. His remains were found about 300 yards away from where he was seen in the deer cam image, according to police.
"At this time, we have no reason to believe foul play was involved, but the case is still under investigation," the department said in a Facebook post at the time.
It added that other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, assisted in the "ongoing investigation."
The sheriff's office continued: "All details have been given solely to the mother, and if and when she wants anything additional released, or if we find anything else that the public needs to know, we will release that information at that time."
A spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, told Insider in March, "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 agency couldn't provide any "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."
The FBI Jackson Field Office said in a statement that the agency "routinely offers assistance to our law enforcement partners, to provide additional manpower and specialized resources, if they become necessary."
"Currently the Laurel Police Department, the Smith County Sheriff's Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations are the lead investigating agencies on this matter," the FBI said.
Protesters call for more investigations
In late December and February, family members and other protesters demonstrated near the local police department, accusing police of not helping Rasheem when he came to them for help, according to WDAM.
"You leave a man out there 31 days, you knew he was out there," Tiffany Carter said to WDAM in December 2022. "You knew he was out there. You did nothing but feed me lies about my son."
Carter's family alleges the man was 'dismembered' and 'murdered'
Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Rasheem's family, told reporters in March that an independent autopsy revealed that Rasheem's head was "severed" from his body and that his vertebrae and spinal cord were found in a different location.
Other body parts are still missing, according to Crump.
"What that tells us is that this was a nefarious act," Crump said, alongside Carter's mother. "This was an evil act. Somebody murdered Rasheem Carter. And we can not let them get away with this."
Crump alleged that police "failed" to help Rasheem.
"What we have is a Mississippi lynching. A Mississippi lynching in 2022," Crump said.
Rasheem's family has called on the US Department of Justice to open an investigation into his death.
Tiffany Carter told Insider that there was "no doubt" in her mind that her son was murdered.
Police say there is no evidence that Carter was murdered
Sheriff Houston told Insider on in March that "everything is still on the table" when it comes to the death of Rasheem but insisted that investigators have not yet discovered any evidence pointing to the man's family's allegations that he was murdered.
"Anything is possible until we have completed the case, turned over every rock, every leaf, and find every possible answer there is to find," said Houston.
Houston said that "nothing has changed" since investigators first made public that they did not suspect any foul play in the case.
"At the time, we'd already followed up on a bunch of leads," Houston said, adding, "We were already able to exclude a lot of the potential suspects out of why he went missing."
Houston said there was "no evidence" that suggested foul play when Rasheem's remains were first found, and "till this date, other than the allegations that are being made from the family, we still don't have evidence of foul play."
The sheriff added, "At this point, we're just trying to rule out any possibility of anybody being present in his last time alive."
"The evidence we have right now is not showing anybody with him," Houston said, noting that investigators are still waiting on search warrants from technology companies that would help "rule out anybody being with him."
Houston added that animals could have "very easily" torn apart Carter's body after he died.
"There is nothing being covered up. There is nothing being swept under the rug," Houston urged. "There's nothing to hide."
The sheriff also said that he would welcome the DOJ getting involved in the investigation.
Carter's family alleges more remains have been found months later
Crump told reporters on May 11 that more remains had been found in the area where Rasheem's other body parts were discovered and that the family believes that the new remains belong to Rasheem.
"We're demanding transparency" from authorities, Crump said, adding, "Tell us if this is or if it isn't the arm and the hand of Rasheem Carter and if it's not that raises even more serious questions."
Crump said the family found out about the newly discovered remains a week earlier when a Good Samaritan sent a cell phone video to Rasheem's family showing law enforcement inspecting the remains.
"We believe that this is going to be the remains of Rasheem Carter," Crump said. "They need to verify that and they need to give answers to this family to who murdered Rasheem Carter."
Crump continued, "They have a right to know and there is no excuse for bystanders coming showing video to the family and officials not having the dignity and respect to notify the family immediately and say we found more human remains in the vicinity where your son's head and spinal cord and other bodily remains were found."
The attorney, who spoke alongside Rasheem's family members, continued to insist that Rasheem was the victim of a "lynching."
"This is such a senseless killing, such a senseless murder," Crump said. "It's not right and we have to get answers for this family."