Over the past 26 years, a specific and painful pattern has repeated itself across the American South and beyond: a Black person is found dead, hanging, often from a tree — and law enforcement rules the death a suicide within hours or days, before a full investigation is complete. Families and civil rights advocates say the speed of these rulings, combined with the weight of America’s lynching history, leaves too many questions unanswered. This is a timeline of documented cases, built strictly from primary and mainstream news sources, from earliest to most recent.
2000: Raynard Johnson, Kokomo, Mississippi
On June 16, 2000, 17-year-old Raynard Johnson was found hanging from a pecan tree in the front yard of his family’s home in Kokomo, Mississippi. His family said he had been threatened over his relationships with white classmates and did not believe he took his own life. The Justice Department, FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi investigated and closed the case in February 2001, concluding the evidence did not support federal civil rights charges. Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to Mississippi to draw national attention to the case, and it remains, in the words of the NAACP, an unresolved point of grief for his family.
2010: Frederick Jermaine Carter, Greenwood, Mississippi
On December 3, 2010, 26-year-old Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hanging from an oak tree in a predominantly white area of Leflore County, Mississippi. Authorities said footprint evidence and witness accounts pointed to suicide, and the county coroner’s preliminary finding agreed. But Mississippi’s state medical examiner, Dr. Adel Shaker, notably declined to officially rule the manner of death, citing a “pending investigation,” according to the Deseret News. NAACP Mississippi leadership called for a federal investigation, and the case was never fully resolved to the family’s satisfaction, per Mississippi Free Press reporting.
2014: Lennon Lacy, Bladenboro, North Carolina
Seventeen-year-old Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set frame in a mobile home park on August 29, 2014. North Carolina’s chief medical examiner ruled it a suicide, but Lacy’s mother and his white girlfriend — who said neighbors had objected to their interracial relationship — rejected that conclusion, according to Facing South. The FBI opened a civil rights investigation in December 2014 and closed it in 2016, finding, per its file reported by WECT, that Lacy had confided to a friend before his death that he wanted to die. His case became the center of the Sundance-winning documentary “Always in Season.”
2015: Otis Byrd, Port Gibson, Mississippi
Otis Byrd, 54, went missing on March 2, 2015, and was found hanging from a tree roughly half a mile from his home on March 19. More than 30 federal, state, and local agents investigated, and the Department of Justice announced in May 2015 that it found no evidence the death was a homicide, closing the case without determining a definitive manner of death.
2020: Malcolm Harsch (Victorville, California) and Robert Fuller (Palmdale, California)
Ten days apart, two Black men were found hanging from trees roughly 50 miles apart in Southern California: Malcolm Harsch, 38, on May 31, and Robert Fuller, 24, on June 10. Both deaths were initially ruled suicides by local authorities, but the near-simultaneous timing, combined with 2020’s broader national reckoning on racial violence, drew scrutiny from the FBI and coverage from outlets including Rolling Stone. Surveillance video reviewed in Harsch’s case reportedly showed no one else present. Both families said the men had not shown signs of suicidal intent.
September 2025: Trey Reed, Delta State University, Mississippi
Football players found 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed hanging from a tree in the middle of the Cleveland, Mississippi campus on September 15, 2025. The Bolivar County coroner ruled it a suicide within days, saying Reed’s body showed no injuries consistent with an assault, according to CNN. Reed’s mother and family, represented by attorney Ben Crump, dispute that finding and say an independent autopsy showed injuries inconsistent with the official account, per Mississippi Today. The case remains under FBI and U.S. Attorney review.
November 2025: Tory Medley, Brookfield, Wisconsin
Torrance “Tory” Medley, 39, was found hanging from a tree at a golf course in Brookfield, Wisconsin on November 13, 2025. Police called it a suspected suicide within hours, but Medley’s family and the Wisconsin NAACP say he had no car and no known connection to the golf course, and are demanding a fuller accounting of how he got there, according to FOX6 Milwaukee.
February 2026: Kyle Bassinga, Marietta, Georgia
Twenty-one-year-old Kyle Bassinga, a college student, was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area of Fair Oaks Park on February 14, 2026, after witnesses reported seeing him walk into the woods alone, according to 11Alive. Cobb County Police Chief Dan Ferrell said investigators found no evidence anyone else was involved and are treating the case as a preliminary suicide pending final autopsy and toxicology results. Bassinga’s family and the New Order National Human Rights Organization have publicly rejected that conclusion and are demanding full transparency, per BET.
April–May 2026: Juliana Nzita, Charlotte, North Carolina
Sixteen-year-old Juliana Nzita, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was reported missing on April 28, 2026. On May 8, a community volunteer found her body hanging from a tree on property belonging to The United House of Prayer for All People, according to The North Carolina Beat. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department ruled her death a suicide. Video circulated online showing a chair beneath the tree and Nzita’s feet appearing to touch the ground, details that have fueled public skepticism, as reported by the AFRO American Newspapers.
The “Crimson Record”: a formal count of the pattern
On February 18, 2026, the Mississippi-based civil rights organization JULIAN (Julian, an acronym drawn from its founding mission), led by attorney Jill Collen Jefferson, released a report titled A Crimson Record. The report documents more than 70 suspected modern-day lynchings and over 150 total fatal hate crimes and suspicious deaths across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas between 2000 and 2025, according to theGrio and Axios. Jefferson’s central argument is procedural, not conspiratorial: “The moment a case is ruled a suicide, it’s no longer investigated as a potential homicide.” The report calls for stronger coroner training, standardized “psychological autopsy” protocols, and full use of the federal Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. Law enforcement agencies in most of the individual cases dispute JULIAN’s framing, and the report’s conclusions are advocacy findings, not official legal determinations.
What the “Get Out” comparisons get right — and where the evidence actually stands
Because several of these deaths involve young Black men and women found in similar circumstances — trees, ropes, remote or symbolically charged locations, and fast suicide rulings — some commentators online have drawn comparisons to the premise of Jordan Peele’s 2017 film “Get Out,” or speculated about a coordinated ritual or “challenge.” It’s important to be precise about what is and isn’t established: no law enforcement agency, medical examiner, or the JULIAN report itself has found evidence connecting these cases to one another, to any organized group, or to any ritual or game. What the record does show is a documented pattern of contested procedure — fast suicide classifications that families say foreclose homicide investigations before they can fully begin, against the backdrop of a country where, per the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,400 documented racial terror lynchings occurred between 1877 and 1950. That history is precisely why unresolved cases like these carry a different weight for Black families than they might elsewhere, and why the demand across every case above is the same: an investigation thorough enough, and transparent enough, to actually answer the question.
References
AFRO American Newspapers. (2026, May). Black teen’s death in NC sparks outrage and questions. https://afro.com/black-teen-found-hanging-charlotte/
BET. (2026, February). A young Black man was found hanging from a tree, police say “no foul play.” https://www.bet.com/article/pez7qf/a-young-black-man-was-found-hanging-from-a-tree-police-say-no-foul-play
CNN. (2025, September 17). Trey Reed hanging death: Delta State University student found dead on Mississippi campus ruled suicide. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/17/us/mississippi-hanging-delta-state-university-black-student-hnk
Deseret News. (2010, December 7). Autopsy indicates suicide in Mississippi hanging case. https://www.deseret.com/2010/12/7/20158910/autopsy-indicates-suicide-in-mississippi-hanging-case/
Equal Justice Initiative. (n.d.). Lynching in America: Confronting the legacy of racial terror. https://eji.org/reports/lynching-in-america/
Facing South. (2014, December 15). The strange death of Lennon Lacy: Another lynching mistaken for suicide? Institute for Southern Studies. https://www.facingsouth.org/2014/12/the-strange-death-of-lennon-lacy-another-lynching-.html
FOX6 Milwaukee (WITI). (2025, December). Brookfield golf course death investigation, family seeks transparency. https://www.fox6now.com/news/brookfield-golf-course-death-investigation
Mississippi Free Press. (n.d.). Finding foul play. https://www.mississippifreepress.org/finding-foul-play/
Mississippi Today. (2025, October 24). Family awaits results of independent autopsy on Delta State student Trey Reed. https://mississippitoday.org/2025/10/24/family-awaits-results-independent-autopsy-delta-state-student-trey-reed/
NAACP. (n.d.). Regarding the lynching of Raynard Johnson in Kokomo, Mississippi. https://naacp.org/resources/regarding-lynching-raynard-johnson-kokomo-mississippi
Rolling Stone. (2020, June). Hanging deaths of two Black men ruled suicides, authorities say. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/robert-fuller-malcolm-harsch-investigation-hanging-death-1015775/
theGrio. (2026, February 19). New report finds more than 70 suspected modern-day lynchings in the deep South since 2000. https://thegrio.com/2026/02/19/new-report-finds-more-than-70-suspected-modern-day-lynchings-in-the-deep-south-since-2000/
The North Carolina Beat. (2026, May). 16-year-old Charlotte teen Juliana Nzita found hanging on church property, ruled suicide. https://thencbeat.com/juliana-nzita-death-charlotte-nc/
11Alive (WXIA). (2026, February). Cobb officials say they understand concern in case of Kyle Bassinga’s death. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/cobb-county-officials-press-conference-update-kyle-bassinga-death/85-d3bf5311-481a-49f5-aee1-7cb26ddcd97c
Time. (2020, June 12). FBI “actively reviewing” investigations into the hanging deaths of two Black men in Southern California. https://time.com/5855081/robert-fuller-malcolm-harsch-hanging-california-fbi/
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. (2001, February 1). Justice Department closes Raynard Ladell Johnson case [Press release]. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2001/February/047cr.htm
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. (2015, May 29). Federal officials close the investigation into the death of Otis James Byrd [Press release]. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/federal-officials-close-investigation-death-otis-james-byrd
WECT. (2021, January 20). Lennon Lacy FBI file: How authorities determined suicide, not lynching. https://www.wect.com/2021/01/20/lennon-lacy-fbi-file-how-authorities-determined-suicide-not-lynching/
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