The FBI is assisting authorities in Claiborne County, Mississippi, as they investigate the death of an African-American man found hanging in a tree late this afternoon.
Local police found the man’s body, identified by the NAACP as 54-year-old Otis Byrd, hanged from a tree in the woods around his house in rural Mississippi.
The FBI issued a statement on the case in which they said:
“Earlier in the day, the Claiborne County Sheriffs Department and the Mississippi [Department of] Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks conducted a ground search for a man who had been missing since early March. Officers located a man hanging in the woods near Roddy Road a half mile from his last known residence.?
At this point in the investigation it is still not clear if the man found was murdered or might have taken his own life.
The man had been reported missing on March 2 and had not been seen by friends or family since that day.
Police officials in Claiborne County will conduct their own investigation, as will the FBI to determine if there was a case of a possible civil rights violation.
