11 May 2023 , 22:31
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The grieving mother of a Black man whose remains have been found brutally mutilated after an alleged racist attack has spoken out on her ordeal as details emerged about a fourth set of human remains.
Tiffany Carter, the mother of Rasheem Carter, spoke to the press on Thursday to call for transparency on the investigation of her 25-year-old son's murder.
Authorities located a fourth set of human remains in Taylorsville, Mississippi, near the site where Rasheem was allegedly lynched last year.
Devastated, Ms Carter said: "I don’t sleep much. I really don’t.
"I’m always thinking about what transpired with my son and to what degree it transpired.
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"And another thing is, you know, as a mother, you know, the situation is it’s challenging to even cope. You know, I can’t even begin to cope because I don’t have no direction."
Rasheem Carter was found dead with his head severed from his body
He was 25 years old when he was murdered in an alleged racist attackRasheem Carter, a Black man from Mississippi, claimed he was being targeted by white men in his community, and, only days after he disclosed the troubling situation to his mother and the police, he went missing in October 2022.
Carter was allegedly followed and harassed, before he was found dead in a wooded area near Taylorsville, Mississippi.
The state medical examiner could not determine his cause of death.
The family's attorney Ben Crump called for transparency on the investigation (Stefan Jeremiah/AP/REX/Shutterstock)The Mississippi Crime Lab could not confirm if the latest remains belonged to Carter, and has suggested the decapitation and spread out remains could have been done by animals.
The Carter family is offering a $50,000 reward for any information helpful in the investigation.
The family had previously claimed that the officials overseeing the Rasheem Carter case in Mississippi had failed to provide them with adequate information and closure, despite their ongoing grief.
Rasheem was reported missing on October 2, 2022 (Laurel Police Department)The family said they had been misled since the start of the investigation when they were initially told that Rasheem had been killed by animals after his head was found decapitated from his body.
Officials subsequently admitted that he had been murdered, but then provided no further updates, the family denounced.
The family has blasted authorities over what they say is a lack of progress in the investigation and said they are being "stonewalled" at every turn.
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Rasheem Carter’s mother Tiffany Carter and attorney Ben Crump speak at press conference (ABC)The family's attorney, Ben Crump told the press the gruesome details of the gradual discovery of Rasheem's remains.
He said: "First they [authorities] found his hand decapitated from his body. And then on the same day, they find his spinal cord in a separate location in the same facility.
"And then a couple of weeks later, they find a third set of remains still located in the same facility where they found his head decapitated.
"And they found his spinal column, the skeletal fracture of his spinal column - then they find a third set of bones.
"They do the DNA testing and they can clue that this is also the regime's body.
"Now they say they found a couple of human bones and they say some of them match Rasheem Carter's body.
"And then the family was notified that there's a fourth set of human remains that were discovered last week.
"And we are told that the bystander a white citizen tells us that he videotaped them making the discovery and you see the arm bone and a hand attached to it."
And he continued describing the grim video, which we are not publishing as a whole.
He said: "[In the video you] see the law enforcement officer with the stick, pulling the human remains up.
"But that is a citizen - a good Samaritan coming forward, trying to tell Tiffany Carter, about what he captured on his video.
"And that he believes he just may be part of her son's remains.
"But the Mississippi crime lab or the sheriff's department has failed to notify Tiffany Carter. And so we're demanding transparency."
The law firm said in an earlier statement: "It is unacceptable that the family had to find out through an email that more of Rasheem’s remains were found, and still, they haven’t been told any other information, been offered a meeting with officials, or received his remains.
"They continue to be stonewalled at every turn. This family just wants to find out what happened to Rasheem and say their goodbyes – they ask that the additional remains be returned to them so that they can lay him to rest."
Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston told ABC News in March that earlier evidence of the case "didn't suggest" any foul play, stressing that "nothing is being swept under the rug."
Mirror Online has contacted the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and Smith County Sheriff’s Office for comment.