A Black Mississippi family is demanding answers and justice in what they suspect was the lynching of Rasheem Carter by a group of White men. Plans are underway for a protest on Saturday (April 29) at the Taylorsville SportsPlex in Smith County, Miss. 

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Carter’s family, said in a statement Wednesday (April 24) that they were notified that a third set of Carter’s remains were found on February 23 that contained his DNA, adding that “it is unacceptable that the family had to find out through an email that more of Rasheem’s remains were found.”

This is yet another instance of Mississippi officials not giving the family adequate information in an investigation that authorities have mishandled, according to the statement.

“From the beginning of this case, the family has been misled. At first, when the first of Rasheem’s remains were discovered with his head decapitated from his body, officials told the family that it was animals that killed Rasheem. Then, officials admitted that they believed he was murdered,” the statement said.

Crump and co-counsel Carlos Moore called for a federal investigation of Carter's death after an independent autopsy found that Carter’s head was severed from his body, which they said confirmed their suspicion that Carter was murdered, ABC News reported in March.

Carter, 25, was reported missing on Oct. 2, 2022, according to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office. He was last seen two days earlier in Laurel, Miss. The first set of his remains were found on Nov. 2 in a wooded area, south of Taylorsville, Miss.

“At this time, we have no reason to believe foul play was involved,” the sheriff’s statement said, adding that the remains were taken to a crime lab for DNA confirmation.

But Carter’s family doubts the sheriff’s assessment that no foul play was involved. Days before the family reported him missing, Carter sent a text message to his mother, Tiffany Carter, and told the police that White men in the community had targeted him.

In the text message, Carter named the person who made him feel threatened. "If anything happens… he's responsible for it. … He got these guys wanting to kill me," said Tiffany Carter, reading the text at a press conference, according to ABC News.

The family questioned the medical examiner’s ruling that the cause and manner of death were undetermined. Carter's spinal cord recovered in an area separate from his head, Crump has underscored.

"This doesn't seem like the act of just one individual," Crump said at a press conference, according to ABC News. "It kind of lines up with what Tiffany said, there was a lynch mob of three trucks chasing her son before he went missing."