Officials exhume man buried without his family’s knowledge

RAYMOND, Miss. — The body of a Mississippi man who died after being hit by a police SUV driven by an off-duty officer was exhumed Monday, months after officials failed to notify his family of his death.

At a news conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, local leaders and family members of 37-year-old Dexter Wade said they had hired an independent medical examiner to perform an autopsy on the man’s body. They will also give him a proper funeral. While Dexter Wade’s remains were released Monday, his family said officials failed to honor the agreed-upon time approved by a county attorney for exhuming the body.

“Now, I ask, can I exhume my child and try to get some peace and try to get a state of mind,” said Dexter Wade’s mother, Bettersten Wade. “Now y’all take that from me. I couldn’t even see him come out of the ground.”

Dexter Wade’s family members, his attorneys and other witnesses said they did not get to see the exhumation because it took place hours before county officials said it would. In a letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Associated Press, Hinds County Board Attorney Tony Gaylor told Dennis Sweet, one of Bettersten Wade’s attorneys, that the body would be exhumed at 11:30 a.m.

Gaylor did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment.

The Rev. Ronald Moore of Stronger Hope Baptist Church said he arrived at the pauper’s cemetery near the Hinds County Penal Farm in the Jackson suburb of Raymond around 10:30 a.m. He said officials told him the body was already gone. Then he was told the body still might be there. But Moore, Dexter Wade’s family and the attorneys didn’t see the body until hours later, after it was already exhumed.

“It’s a low-down dirty shame what happened today,” Crump said. “What happened to Dexter Wade in March and what happened to Dexter Wade here today reeks to the high heavens.”