Family of Black Mississippi student found hanging from tree fights for answers

Demartravion "Trey" Reed, the Delta State University student whose body was found Monday hanging from a tree on the Cleveland campus, did not have broken bones or “injuries consistent with an assault,” according to a coroner’s preliminary examination.

"At this time, there is no evidence to suggest the individual was physically attacked before his death,” Bolivar County Coroner Randolph “Rudy” Seals Jr. said in a statement Monday.

Reed, 21, was from Grenada, Mississippi, and was Black. Mississippi has a history of lynchings of Black people, and speculation has been rampant on social media that Reed had broken bones or was a victim of an attack.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who represents that area, referred to Mississippi's history in calling for the FBI to launch an investigation into Reed's death.

"We must leave no stone unturned in the search for answers," Thompson said in a statement released Tuesday. "While the details of this care are still emerging, we cannot ignore Mississippi's painful history of lynching and racial violence against African Americans."

He urged the FBI's involvement to ensure a full and impartial investigation.

Reed’s body is being sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab for an autopsy, Seals said. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department and the Cleveland Police Department are working with campus police in the death investigation.

Reed was a first-year student at Delta State and had only been on campus about a month before his death, an attorney representing Reed's family, Vanessa Jones, said Tuesday, according to WREG-TV. The law firm where Jones works will investigate the death and will order an independent autopsy, she said.

“Trey’s family is not willing to accept any cause of death until they have been presented with all of the facts that will be independently verified through our own investigation,” Jones said in a statement.

She said at a news conference Tuesday that the president of Delta State had not reached out to the family, WREG reported.

“As we move forward, we’re just looking for answers that a simple camera on the university’s campus would answer,” Jones said. “The media knew about his death before Trey’s family did.”

Delta State University said in a statement Tuesday that hundreds of people took part in a prayer vigil Monday night to honor Reed’s life.

Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023.

The university's president, Dan Ennis, said in a video statement Tuesday that school officials remain in contact with Reed's family.

"We give them our love and support, and we know that we can never fully heal this wound," Ennis said. "None of us will fully heal, but we have to go on."

Ennis also said school officials and Reed's family are keeping track of the investigation.

"As you might imagine, we can only release information that's appropriate, and we will never release any information or make any statement that compromises the ability of authorities to get to an answer that is true, that is real, and that, if not satisfying, at least helps us understand a little bit better what occurred," Ennis said.

Delta State University Chief of Police Michael Peeler said at a press conference Monday there was no evidence of foul play. Both he and Ennis said there was no threat to students or the community.