The family has hired attorney Ben Crump as well as local attorney Carlos Moore to aid in the case.
The family of Rasheem Carter, a 25-year-old Black man from Mississippi, is calling for a federal investigation into their loved one's case after they say he was decapitated and believe he was the target of a lynch mob, according to reports.
Carter, who is from Fayette, Miss., was last seen on Oct. 2, 2022, at a Super 8 Hotel in Laurel, according to a missing person's report posted on Facebook from the Laurel Police Department.
However, on Nov. 2, 2022, remains confirmed to be Carter's were found in a wooded area of Taylorsville, Miss., about 21 miles away from where he was reportedly last seen, according to a Facebook post from the Smith County Sheriff's Office.
The statement said that authorities had "no reason to believe foul play was involved."
Carter’s family says the day before he vanished, he sought help from the Taylorsville Police Department after telling his mother that "three truckloads of White guys [were] trying to kill him," his mom, Tiffany, said at a news conference Monday.
"[Police] did not help him. He asked for help, but they did not help him," Tiffany said.
The family has hired attorney Ben Crump as well as local attorney Carlos Moore to aid in the case.
Crump spoke at Monday’s press conference and said “This is not a natural death. This represents a young man who was killed.”
Crump also gave the gruesome details on how the Jefferson County man was found and said that Carter was decapitated.
“His head was severed from his body,” Crump said. “His vertebrate, his spinal cord, was in another spot they discovered away from his severed head. They have recently found remains that they believe are also Rasheem Carter at another part of where he went missing.
"What that tells us is this was a nefarious act, an evil act. Someone murdered Rasheem Carter, and we cannot let them get away with this," Crump added.
“He was dutifully and gainfully employed, just trying to make a living for his young child, and ends up dead, chased by what we believe to be a white supremacist, a lynch mob,” attorney Carlos Moore added at the press conference.
Carter's mother also said at the press conference that he went to the Taylorsville Police Department asking for help.
"They did not help him. He asked for help, but they did not help him," Tiffany said. "He did the right thing by asking, but they didn't help him."
"Because they failed to act, what we have is a Mississippi lynching. A Mississippi lynching in 2022. America, you cannot turn your head away," Crump added. "We need the highest levels of law enforcement to administer justice for Rasheem Carter as if he was your child."
The family is now calling for a federal investigation after Crump said that whoever did this is "trying to sweep the killing of her child, her baby, under the rug. Her heart is broken, but she's still fighting to make sure we catch these murderers."
The Smith County Sheriff’s Department is the lead agency on this case and said it has sent out search warrants, and are still waiting for those to be returned, according to WLBT.
When asked by WLBT if there’s foul play involved, the sheriff said that remains undermined at this time.
Inside Edition Digital has reached out to members of Carter's family as well as attorney Ben Crump for comment on this case and has not heard back.
Crump's co-council, Carlos Moore, told Inside Edition Digital in a statement, "The family of Rasheem Carter is calling for an immediate investigation by the Department of Justice and FBI into the brutal and horrific execution and dismemberment of Rasheem late last year. He was not only murdered but lynched and this should be treated as a hate crime of epic proportions."
Inside Edition Digital has also reached out to the Taylorsville Police Department and the Smith County Sheriff for comment on this story and has not heard back.
Tommy Cox, a spokesperson for the Laurel Police Department told Inside Edition Digital, "This didn't happen here. He didn't go missing here. We followed up with other jurisdictions and we put in work on a missing persons case to try and help the family out while he worked in Taylorsville which is 20 something miles from here in another jurisdiction. He never contacted the Laurel Police. We never had face to face contact with him. This was treated as a missing persons case until we handed it off to another jurisdiction when he was found."
In the wake of Carter’s death, his family has launched a GoFundMe account to help pay for expenses.
“The purpose of this account is to raise funds to help defray the cost in seeking justice for my son and to help alleviate the financial stresses that have been accrued throughout this process. Thanks in advance for the monetary donations (big and small), prayers, and support; you have no idea how much it has meant to my family,” Tiffany wrote.
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