Mother seeks answers in 37-year-old son's death and burial in pauper's grave

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- For months, Bettersten Wade called Jackson, Miss., police for updates about her 37-year-old son, Dexter, who had disappeared in March. She searched for five months before learning the truth: Jackson Police Department knew where he was -- buried in a pauper's grave behind a local jail.

Bettersten Wade learned an off-duty police officer in an SUV struck and killed Wade the same day he went missing, and no one informed her. Preliminary findings in an independent autopsy released last week showed he had a wallet with a state identification card, credit cards and a health insurance card in this front pocket, attorney Ben Crump said on X. The autopsy also showed Dexter Wade, 37, had multiple blunt force injuries to the skull, ribs and pelvis, and his left leg was amputated.

Crump called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the case.

"The fact that Dexter had a state identification card and several other identifying items shows us that there was a concerted effort to keep the truth and manner of his death from his family," Crump said. "There is no excuse, not even incompetence, for not notifying a next of kin of an identified man's death."

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Wade's death was an "unfortunate and tragic accident." Bettersten Wade needs still has a lot of questions.

"Right now I'm hoping I can get to some kind of answer as to why it happened and what was the reason that it happened," she said. "But right now I'm still not satisfied."