The 2022 murder of Rasheem Ryelle Carter, 25, in rural Mississippi, is one of the ugliest, most sadistic, nauseating crimes that has been reported in the 21st century. Indeed, the sheer barbarity of what happened to Carter seems like it belongs in another era, but it happened a mere seven months ago.
On Oct. 1, Rasheem phoned his mother in distress, telling her that he was being followed by three truckloads of white men in Taylorsville, a small town in Mississippi. He reported that the men were hurling racial slurs at him. One month later, Carter's skeletonized remains were found in a wooded area near Taylorsville; he had been decapitated and dismembered. But despite this grisly scenario - reeking of an old-fashioned Mississippi lynching - the local police immediately claimed that there was "no reason" to suspect foul play.
Rasheem Carter feared for his life - and with good reason
Contrary to popular belief, lynchings in Mississippi and other states have not disappeared in modern times; as reported in The Washington Post (8/21/21), they have simply gone underground. The local police typically claim "no foul play"; the mainstream media ignore the story; and these "modern day lynchings" get swept under the rug. Jill Collen Jefferson, a lawyer and civil rights activist put it like this:
"Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped. The evil bastards just stopped taking photographs and passing them around like baseball cards" (The Washington Post, 8/21/21).
The incidents leading up to Rasheem Carter's death occurred while he was employed as a temporary worker at a mechanical contracting company in Taylorsville - a town that is reportedly not safe for Black people after dark. Racial justice activist Marquell Bridges had this to say to The Final Call (2/7/23) about Taylorsville:
"Taylorsville, Mississippi, still has active Klan, it's technically still a sundown town, and all of the Black people around Taylorsville pretty much know: 'Don't be caught around there,' or the Mize area after dark."
On Oct. 1 - one day before his disappearance - Carter called his mother, Tiffany Carter, and told her that he was stranded in Taylorsville. Following an argument, a co-worker who usually gave Rasheem a ride back to the hotel where they both stayed, refused to give Rasheem a ride that particular day. As a result, Carter was alone, on foot, in what many regard as a sundown town. Moreover, he reported to his mother that he was being followed by white men in three pickup trucks, and they were hurling racial slurs at him. In a text message to his mother, he indicated that he was in fear for his life, and that if anything bad should happen to him, his boss was responsible:
"Me and the owner of this company are not seeing eye to eye Mama... But if anything happen to me, he's responsible for it... I'm too smart Mama, he got these guys wanting to kill me" (Press Conference, 3/13/23).
The next morning, on Oct. 2, Tiffany Carter let her son know that she had arranged for her best friend to pick him up later that day, and Rasheem provided his exact location. Tragically, this would be the last time he would ever speak with his mother; when her friend arrived in Taylorsville approximately two hours later, Rasheem had disappeared.
The condition of Rasheem Carter's remains points to homicide, not animal activity
Rasheem Carter's remains were located on Nov. 2, on private land, in a wooded area near Taylorsville. Horrifically, Rasheem had been decapitated and dismembered; oddly, his body was skeletonized after only one month; and the jeans he had been wearing have seemingly disappeared. The Carter family's lawyer, nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump provided the following description at a March 13 press conference:
"His head was severed from his body... his vertebrate, his spinal cord, was in another spot they discovered away from his severed head."
Despite the macabre state of Carter's remains and the obviously sadistic nature of the crime, the local police immediately tried to push the theory that Rasheem's body was torn apart by wild animals. But as Crump told Inside Edition, the fact that Carter was decapitated is indicative of homicide as opposed to animal activity:
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No Ifs, No Buts: This was a Mississippi Lynching In 2022
Non-FictionRasheem Carter, a young Black man, was found decapitated and dismembered after reporting that his employer wanted him dead. Seven months later, no arrests have been made.
