FBI agents probe whether black man’s hanging was suicide or homicide

Claiborne County officials prepare to leave a home in Port Gibson, Miss., where authorities were investigating the hanging death of a black man in the neighboring woods, Thursday, March 19, 2015. The man has not been identified. (AP Photo/The Vicksburg Evening Post, Josh Edwards) Claiborne County officials prepare to leave a home in Port Gibson, Miss., where authorities were investigating the hanging death of a black man in the neighboring woods, Thursday, March 19, 2015. The man has not been identified. (AP Photo/The Vicksburg Evening Post, Josh Edwards)

By Associated Press March 20, 2015 3 min read

PORT GIBSON, Miss. — A black man found hanging from a tree in Mississippi was Otis Byrd, a convicted killer whose family reported him missing more than two weeks ago, the FBI said Friday.

Thirty federal agents are on the scene, interviewing Byrd’s friends and family, and searching through his home and a storage space as they try to determine whether it was homicide or suicide, FBI special agent Don Alway said.

Byrd lived about 200 yards from the tree, which was in woods down a dirt road behind his house.

“Everybody wants answers and wants them quickly,” Alway said, but he declined to reveal any evidence discovered so far. He said the government is bringing the resources “we need to come to a conclusion, wherever that takes us.”

Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas Sr. told The Associated Press earlier Friday that Byrd did not appear to have stepped off of anything before he died.