Details elusive at Byrd’s funeral

Published 9:52 pm Friday, March 27, 2015

LAID TO REST: A box containing Otis James Byrd’s remains Friday was buried at Ashland M.B. Church cemetery in Grand Gulf.

LAID TO REST: A box containing Otis James Byrd’s remains Friday was buried at Ashland M.B. Church cemetery in Grand Gulf.

PORT GIBSON — A Port Gibson man found hanged behind his home earlier this month was laid to rest Friday, while state, local and federal authorities continue to investigate whether his death was a suicide or murder.

More than 200 people packed into Mount Burner Baptist Church in Pattison for Otis Byrd’s funeral Friday. Byrd, whose body was found March 19, was mentioned just a handful of times during the 90-minute service that focused mostly on loss and healing.

“Our community has been rocked. Our community has been devastated, in a state of confusion by this most terrible situation,” the Rev. Ray Coleman Sr. said during Byrd’s eulogy.

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The FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s office, as well as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating the hanging.

Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas said no timetable has been set for releasing the autopsy and indicated that FBI reports were sent to the bureau’s headquarters in Virginia for review.

FBI profilers were in Port Gibson this week gathering evidence in the case, Lucas said.

“Until they get all that back, they’re not going to release anything,” Lucas said.

Authorities have not released an autopsy report on Byrd who was found behind his home on Rodney Road just east of Port Gibson. A week ago, FBI Agent in Charge Don Alway said a preliminary autopsy report would be finished this week.

Coleman referenced the lack of officially released information during the funeral service.

“I don’t know what took place on Rodney Road that day. We may or may not know what took place while we’re on this side of eternity,” Coleman said.

Though questions remain, most of Byrd’s friends and family at the funeral declined to comment.

“It’s all been said,” Byrd’s father, Willie Shorter, said.

When funeral officials asked friends and family to come to the front of the church and share their memories of Byrd, only two people volunteered. Neither spoke directly about Byrd and instead addressed his family

“If the Lord brought you to it, I guarantee he’s going to bring you through it,” Barbara Anderson Young told the family.

Young’s brother Craig James Anderson was run over and killed in a hate crime in 2011.

Following the memorial service in Pattison, the square blue urn containing Byrd’s remains was buried in the cemetery of Ashland M.B. Church in Grand Gulf.

Claiborne County NAACP organizer Evan Doss Jr. said he and others were frustrated with the lack of information and have planned a peaceful protest march for 10 a.m. April 4.

“They need to provide more evidence than what they have already said,” Doss said.