Trey Reed’s death by hanging in Mississippi ruled a suicide in released autopsy

The death of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a black student whose body was found hanging from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., has been ruled a suicide by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner, Cleveland police said Thursday(September 18). The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's autopsy findings are "consistent with the initial investigation, determining the cause of death to be hanging and the manner of death as suicide”, according to the ABC News website.

A faculty member discovered the body of Trey Reed around 7 am, hanging from a tree near the pickleball courts on Delta State University’s campus in Cleveland, Mississippi.

Cleveland police said all investigative materials have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US attorney’s Office for review as the probe continues, and the case remains active. Federal authorities have said they are monitoring the investigation and are prepared to open a federal inquiry if a potential violation of federal law emerges.


"I want to begin by acknowledging that the manner how Trey was discovered has stirred many emotions in this community and many emotions around the state and the nation," Delta State President Dan Ennis said at a news conference.

The university sits roughly 50 miles from the Tallahatchie River, where in 1955, authorities recovered the mutilated body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teenager who two white men had abducted after being accused of whistling at a white woman. Civil rights advocates urged a full and transparent investigation into the death, pointing to Mississippi’s long history of lynching and racially motivated violence throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.