PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) – The body of a black man found hanging in a tree in Mississippi has been sent from a state crime lab to a funeral home, but the FBI said it will be days before autopsy results are complete. Until then, investigators are holding off on saying whether Otis Byrd was killed or took his own life, and they’re urging people to be patient.
“The community deserves answers. Specifically, the family deserves answers,” Don Alway, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson, told a crowd Friday outside the Claiborne County Courthouse in Port Gibson. He said preliminary information about the cause of death is expected next week.
“We’re doing everything in our power to be transparent, to talk about what’s going on so far,” Alway said. “But we want to reiterate that individual, single pieces of information and bits of rumors, we’re going to hold off on speaking to those until we can collectively come to a conclusion and get you the truth that everybody deserves.”
The county coroner confirmed that the man found hanging from a white sheet Thursday was Byrd, a 54-year-old ex-convict who was reported missing by his family more than two weeks ago. Byrd lived just 200 yards from the spot where his body was found, in woods behind his house.
Alway said investigators are interviewing Byrd’s family and friends and searching his rental home and a storage unit for clues.