Student Trey Reed’s Family Launches Independent Investigation after Hanging Death Ruled ‘Suicide’

Can modern technology best a history of “shoddy” police work on Mississippi lynchings? 

The investigation into Trey Reed’s death seems to fit the police pattern of treating any hanging death like suicide. image credit: Shutterstock

No one understood the anatomy of a lynching better than Ida B. Wells, a Black investigative journalist who documented countless lynchings throughout the South. Wells documented cases of lynchings committed from 1892 to 1895 and published her findings in a 14-page pamphlet entitled, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, where she describes various lynchings in vivid detail. Keep in mind, she did this without the convenience of a digital camera, a tape recorder or a cell phone.  Fast-forward to today. Compared to Black families of the 1800s, the family of a Black Delta State University freshman discovered hanging from a tree on September 15 has access to an embarrassment of modern investigative tools and resources, in theory. There are campus-wide security cameras, high-powered civil rights attorneys and a celebrity-funded autopsy. But will any technology be enough to uncover the truth of what happened to Demartravion “Trey” Reed? 

Hotdogs, apple pie, lynchings — an American trio

When Billie Holiday sang the lyrics to her signature tune, “Strange Fruit,” she was singing a protest song about lynchings. The song was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropool (PKA Lewis Allen) that was set to music for Holiday. The poem was inspired by a gruesome photograph of a 1930s lynching of two unknown African American males. Released in 1939, “Strange Fruit,” became not only a hit song, it became the only song of its era to shine a light on one of America’s dirtiest secrets by opening the “window to the soul of white supremacy and African American life in the South — lynching.” 

Dr. Farrah Jasmine Griffin, author of the book If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday, says that lynchings were a common occurrence and as American as baseball, hotdogs and sweet apple pie. “In the late 19th and early 20th century, there began this horrific practice of lynching. Starting around the 1890s following Reconstruction.” According to Griffin, by the time Holiday released “Strange Fruit,” this type of racial violence had been going on for decades.  

What makes a lynching a lynching?  

The NAACP defines lynchings as the public killing of an individual, often a Black person, by a mob of two or more acting under the pretext of justice or tradition, without affording the victim due process. Historians agree that lynchings were a tool of terror used to keep African Americans subjugated. Allegations that could cost a Black person their lives, vary. For an African American woman, the offense can range from “sassing” a white person to defending herself from sexual assault. For African American males, it could be anything from stealing a food item to defending themselves against a physical attack by a white male, but more often than not, it was the accusation, not proof, of sexually assaulting a white was the justification for the brutal torture, mutilation, and murder of the accused. 

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, the state of Mississippi has had an estimated 581 to 600 lynchings. This means Mississippi leads the nation in the nation in lynchings. It has the most female victims, and the most victims snatched from police custody and lynched. Among the many lynching victims, the most well known are 14-year-old Emmett Till, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.  Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman; Cheney, Goodman,  and Schwerner were killed in Neshoba County, Mississippi for attempting to register African Americans to vote.  

While some are apt to point out that racially motivated violence is a thing in the past. Mississippi is not like that now, they say. Things have changed, they say. But, as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

2025: Black student found hung, police say suicide, despite own past   

On Monday, September 15th, at approximately 7:05 a.m., the body of Demartravion “Trey” Reed was discovered deceased at Delta State University  in Cleveland, Mississippi. University Police Chief Michael L. Peeler addressed the public during a press conference, revealing that Reed’s body was found suspended from a tree near the pickleball courts situated near the center of campus. According to officials, Reed’s death appeared to be “self-inflicted.” 

“At this time, there is no evidence of foul play,” Peeler said. “The body has been retrieved by the Bolivar County Coroner’s office. I have requested the assistance of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Bolivar County Sheriff’s office, and the Cleveland Police Department to assist us in this ongoing investigation.”   

Reed’s family describe him as “excited” to start college 

Demartravion “Trey” Reed was a 21-year-old African American college freshman from Grenada, Mississippi. Although little is known about Reed’s life, family and friends describe him ambitious and full of life. His mother told WREG reporter Mike Suriani that she has many questions concerning her son’s death. She added that spoke to her son on the Friday before his death and that he was “excited about attending Delta State University as a freshman.” At a press conference, Reed’s uncle echoed that same sentiment, but added that his nephew was a young man with a vision for his life.  

“When I talked to him, he’d always tell me that he had a plan for his life, and many things he wanted. One thing he said [is that] he wanted to be a truck driver. He wanted to go to college and be a truck driver. Because that’s what I was, for nearly 30 years, and that’s what he wanted to be.” 

Reed’s family hires attorneys, seeks independent autopsy and access to campus cameras  

Days after the family’s press conference, the official autopsy affirmed the police’s initial assessment of suicide. The family has retained Attorney Vanessa J. Jones and Benjamin Crump to investigate the matter. The family is also seeking an independent autopsy of Reed’s body. According to Ben Crump, former athlete and criminal justice advocate, Colin Kaepernick has agreed to fund an independent autopsy. The family is also demanding to see the footage of campus surveillance cameras.  

Most hangings treated like suicide based on evidence no one bothered to gather 

Given Mississippi’s sordid history of passing off a potential case of lynching as a suicide, both the Reed family and the African American community at large find the findings hard to believe, especially during these intense political times when the potential for political violence is extremely palpable on the heels of far-right activist, Charlie Kirk’s murder. In addition, another body was found hanging from a tree in Vicksburg, Mississippi, just hours from the discovery of Reed’s body.   

The victim was Cory Zukatis’ (36), a homeless white male from Brandon, Mississippi, a city 55 miles from Vicksburg. According to police, Zukatis’ body was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area near Vicksburg’s Ameristar Casino at approximately 1:30 p.m. Little is known about the details of Zukatis’ life or the circumstances surrounding his death. The police indicate there was no evidence of foul play. However, the resemblance to Reed’s death has the country in an uproar. 

Jill Collen Jefferson, a lawyer and founder of Julian, a civil rights organization named after the late civil rights leader Julian Bond, says that lynchings in the Magnolia State have never stopped. They often go unreported. Jefferson believes that the major reason why these lynchings go unreported is that, oftentimes, the police dismiss such cases as suicide.

“There is a pattern to how these cases are investigated,” Jefferson said. “When authorities arrive on the scene of a hanging, it’s treated as a suicide almost immediately. The crime scene is not preserved. The investigation is shoddy. And then there is a formal ruling of suicide, despite evidence to the contrary. And the case is never heard from again unless someone brings it up.”  

The Reed’s attorneys vow that they will keep raising critical questions about Trey’s death until the dark truth is finally dragged into the light. 

“We want answers, and we’re going to launch our own independent investigation to get those answers,” said Jones. “We will seek answers independently from Delta State University and from the coroner’s office, and if need be, independent from the state coroner’s office, because we need answers as to what happened to Trey Reed.”