By M. Alex Johnson
The Justice Department is not yet investigating the discovery of the body hanging by a bed sheet in the Mississippi woods as a civil rights crime, federal law enforcement sources told NBC News on Thursday night.
Sheriff's deputies and agents of the Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks Department discovered the body Thursday morning in Claiborne County, near the Louisiana border about 50 miles southeast of Jackson. Local, state and federal authorities refused to identify the victim, whose body was badly decomposed.
They said it was discovered as the local officers were searching for a person who went missing on March 2 — the same day a missing persons report says Otis James Byrd, a 54-year-old African-American man, was last seen.
Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas said it remained undetermined whether the death was a homicide or a suicide, but he confirmed that the man "had a bed sheet tied around his neck." He said the victim had some sort of cap on his head.
The Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP declared that the body was that of Byrd, although it didn't say how it it had reached that conclusion.
"The nature in which Mr. Byrd's body was found required us to contact federal authorities and request a thorough investigation to ensure this was not a racial hate crime," said Derrick Johnson, the conference's president. "It's too early in the process to speculate, but based on the history in Mississippi of racial hate crimes, we are always concerned when an African-American is found hung in a tree in this state."
FBI officials confirmed to NBC News on Thursday night that the agency and the Justice Department are looking into the case, but they stressed that that they were only gathering facts and that no civil rights investigation has been launched.
Michael Kosnar of NBC News contributed to this report.
Otis James Byrd in an undated photo.
First published March 19 2015, 4:13 PM
M. Alex Johnson
M. Alex Johnson is a senior writer for NBC News covering general news, with an emphasis on explanatory journalism and data analysis. Johnson joined NBCNews.com in January 2000 from The Washington Post, where he was news editor of washingtonpost.com and night city editor of the print edition. He has also worked at the Knight-Ridder Washington bureau, Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer, where he was part of a team that won the 1987 Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service. He is a member of the National Press Club, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Online News Association.
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