Mother Denied Chance to See Exhumation of Black Man Who Was Secretly Buried

A mother was denied the chance to witness the exhumation of her son after he was killed by an off-duty police officer in Jackson, Mississippi and buried without the family’s knowledge.

On Monday (November 13), the body of Dexter Wade, 37, was exhumed at 8 a.m. at Hinds County Penal Farm, per WAPT.

The exhumation came hours before its scheduled time of 11:30 am, which was when the family was set to arrive. Wade’s mother said the county broke its “promise” that the family could witness the exhumation. The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, believes the preemptive exhumation is more “evidence” that officials are trying to cover up details of Wade’s death and burial.

“This is further evidence of a coverup,” Crump said in a statement. “Like a thief in the night, they came and took the body out of the ground.”

News of the preemptive exhumation comes after Wade’s mother discovered more than five months following the March disappearance of her son that he was fatally struck by a Jackson police car less than an hour after leaving home.

Over the five months, the mother searched for her son and kept in communication with police over the missing persons case. Each time she called, police said they had no information about her son’s whereabouts.

Police reportedly knew the entire time that Wade was hit by an off-duty corporal hit driving a Jackson police SUV. They let his body go unclaimed for months in the Hinds County morgue.

Since no one had claimed Wade’s body, Hinds County officials buried his remains at its penal farm among other unclaimed bodies on July 14. His mother found out about the burial in August and wasn’t able to visit the grave site until last month.

Wade’s mother said officials have lied to her multiple times.

“They put him in the ground without my permission. They dug him up without my permission — I want that to be known,” she said in a statement.

A Hinds County official said miscommunication was to blame for the preemptive exhumation.

“I saw a little bit with the family being distraught, and we surely apologize for that,” County Administrator Kenny Wayne Jones said in a statement. “But like I said, miscommunication. Time was wrong. Everything is where it’s supposed to be now. And that’s all we know.”

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