FBI: Autopsy Report Days Away in Hanging of Mississippi Man
PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) — The body of a black man found hanging in a Mississippi tree has been sent from a state crime lab to a funeral home, but the FBI says it will be days before autopsy results are complete.
Investigators are holding off on saying whether 54-year-old Otis Byrd was killed or took his own life.
Don Alway, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson, urges patience as investigators search Byrd's belongings and interview people who knew him.
Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas Sr. says Byrd did not appear to have stepped off of anything in the area where he was found hanging from a tree limb about 12 feet high. Lucas says Byrd's feet were dangling about 2 feet off the ground, and his hands were not bound.
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(Photo: AP Photo/Mississippi Department of Corrections)