The family of a Black man found dead in North Carolina with a rope around his neck under a tree are demanding answers and transparency from authorities, who say there were no signs of foul play.
The Vance county sheriff’s office, meanwhile, issued a statement on Wednesday saying an examination by the North Carolina chief medical examiner’s office has determined that there were no defensive wounds or signs of physical or sexual assault. Full autopsy results, including a determination on cause of death and toxicology, were still pending.
Detectives found 21-year-old Javion Magee dead underneath a tree with the rope around his neck on 11 September in Henderson, 40 miles (64.4km) north-east of Raleigh, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office. A 911 caller had reported the body.
Lawyers for Magee’s family addressed reporters on Wednesday to demand answers after they met earlier in the day with the sheriff and his command staff.
“This is an absolute tragedy no matter how it panned out. The facts are still working their way out, but we do know that he was found hanging from a tree,” said lawyer Harry Daniels.
He said that the cause of death had not been determined, and it was premature to suggest that it was a suicide.
The sheriff’s office released a detailed timeline on Wednesday. Magee, who was a commercial truck driver from Illinois, had come to North Carolina after picking up a load of goods in Pennsylvania. He unloaded his truck at a Walmart distribution center in Henderson on the afternoon of 10 September. That evening, Magee was seen on surveillance video buying rope at an area Walmart.
On his way out from the Walmart parking lot, Magee was seen stepping out of the truck to hand money to a homeless person outside the entrance. Authorities interviewed the homeless person, who said Magee gave them $228.
The sheriff’s office says that Magee told the homeless person: “I don’t know how much it is, but if I had more I would give it to you.”
He later parked his truck in a dirt lot of a local business. Surveillance showed him walking alone towards a line of trees with an object in his hand shortly before 7pm, before returning to his truck. Later, at about 7.30pm, surveillance video showed him walking alone back toward the trees, according to the sheriff’s office. He was not seen walking back. Authorities received a 911 call reporting his body the next morning at about 10am.
Investigators said they found Magee in a seated position with the rope tied around his neck and the other end around a tree branch. The brand of rope was one sold by Walmart, and a detective used packaging to determine that the rope had been purchased by Magee the previous day, according to the sheriff’s office.
His truck was found unlocked with his wallet and cellphone inside, along with a Walmart receipt for the rope matching the date and time of the surveillance footage. The sheriff’s office has obtained warrants seeking to more fully access his phone.
Magee’s mother, Tiara Roberson, told the Associated Press in a phone interview last week that she received a call from an investigator on 11 September that her son was found dead that morning. But certain details from investigators on the circumstances of her son’s death concerned Roberson.
She said the investigator told her they had a recording of Magee going to Walmart to buy a rope and the evidence they had available ultimately pointed to suicide. The family said they and their lawyers felt that the conclusion might be premature.
Shortly after finding out about his son’s death, Javion’s father, Kori Magee, contacted the owner of the property where his son was found, Roberson said. One of the man’s workers found Magee’s body and reported it, Roberson said. The owner also told Kori Magee that Javion was with someone on the property, but that person was unknown, Roberson said.
Magee had never made a delivery in Henderson before last week, according to the trucking company he worked for. It was also the 21-year-old’s first trucking job – one he was hired for after getting his commercial driver’s license earlier this year, according to investigators.
