NAACP contests suicide as cause of hanged man's death - USATODAY.com: The county sheriff says that a 26-year-old black man found hanged from an oak tree in Greenwood, Miss., apparently committed suicide, but the president of the local NAACP challenges that explanation and says the group will monitor developments in the case.
Frederick Jermaine Carter, whose body was found Friday in North Greenwood, had a history of mental illness, was on medication and had a pattern of wandering away, says Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks.
Carter, who lived in neighboring Sunflower County, was helping his stepfather paint a building Wednesday. The stepfather went to get tools and when he returned, Carter had wandered off, Banks says.
'That really didn't bother the stepdaddy,' Banks says. 'It had happened so many times before. He's a mental patient and was taking medication. He had wandered to Florida, to Arkansas.'
