The Department of Justice (DOJ) will be stepping in to make changes in how law enforcement reports next-of-kin deaths after the bodies of several men were found buried in a pauper’s field in Mississippi.
According to the DOJ, because reports indicated that race played a role in the discarded burials, the department will assist the Jackson Police Department (JPD) and the Hinds County Coroner’s Office under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in programs receiving federal assistance.
Among those buried in the field was 39-year-old Jonathan David Hankins, who disappeared in May 2022. His mother reported him missing but went months without answers, the report stated.
NBC News found that Mr. Hankins had been found dead in May 2022, three days after leaving home, in a hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi.
Neither the JPD nor the county coroner’s office notified his mother, while both departments—according to the report—blamed each other.
A JPD spokesperson told NBC News that after the investigation of Mr. Hankins’ death, his body was turned over to the coroner’s office for additional investigation and autopsy.
“To this day, the Jackson Police Department has had no further communication with the Hinds County Coroner’s office concerning this case. We were never notified of the victim’s cause of death or identity,” the spokesperson said.
‘I Don’t Know How to Find People’
“I don’t know about missing persons,” she said. “I don’t know how to find people. I know how to determine cause and manner of death. But if I fall short of looking for people, I apologize. I don’t know how to find people.”According to the report, Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the state medical office, said county coroners are supposed to be trained in and responsible for finding next-of-kin.
In the report, the county coroner told the mother of Mr. Hankins that it’s hard to find next-of-kin when there are so many deaths.
Bettersten Wade said her 37-year-old son Dexter Wade went missing in March 2023.
What she found 172 days later was that he had been hit and killed by an off-duty JPD officer while he was crossing the interstate. However, as they did with Mr. Hankins’ death, they neglected the procedure of notifying the family.
A toxicology report showed that he had methamphetamines and PCP in his system.
While Ms. Wade looked for her son, according to the report, the coroner’s office went through the process of having Mr. Wade’s body buried in the pauper’s field.
‘Enhance Policies and Practices’
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi will assist the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in investigating and updating the JPD and coroner’s office’s protocols for handling deaths and notifying next-of-kin.“The department looks forward to working with city and county officials to improve the death notification system in the Jackson area so that the families of missing and deceased persons can receive all the information available about their loved ones,” said U.S. Attorney Todd Gee with the Southern District of Mississippi.
Mayor Issues Statement
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued a statement on the collaboration in which he said the city was “working closely” with the DOJ.“Prior to this collaboration, Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade took the initiative to update and strengthen the policy that JPD already had in place,“ he said. ”The new policy consists of a checks and balances system that will help ensure that all efforts are exhausted when making an effort to notify a decedent’s next of kin. This joint effort with the DOJ is welcomed and will only improve the new standards already in place. This assistance will only help to better serve the residents of our city.”
