"They have recently found remains that they believe are also Rasheem Carter at another part of where he went missing, and what that tells us is, this was a nefarious act. This was an evil act. Somebody murdered Rasheem Carter. And we cannot let them get away with this," Crump said.
According to a statement by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation sent to ABC News, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation of Carter's death. Since it is an open investigation, they did not wish to comment further at this time and any further information and updates should come from the lead agency, Smith County Sheriff's Department.
"Clearly Rasheem's death was not a natural death," said Ricky McDonald, president of the Jefferson County NAACP chapter, said at the press conference. "After Rasheem was found shortly after law enforcement there says that it was no foul play. How can it not be foul play when his body was dismembered? How can it not be foul play when his body parts was scattered all over the land in which he was found."
The Smith County Sheriff's Office "had no reason to believe foul play was involved" when they first found Rasheem Carter last year, according to a statement released on Facebook a day after he was found.
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After specifying a name in the text message who Carter felt threatened by, he continued in the message that "if anything happens… he's responsible for it. … He got these guys wanting to kill me," according to text messages his mother read during the press conference.
"My son told me that it was three truckloads of white guys trying to kill him. And at the time that he told me, as a mother, you know, I had to think fast. So I told him to go to the police station because I felt in my heart they would serve and protect like they are obligated to do," she said.
Carter visited the Taylorsville Police Department on two separate occasions leading up to his disappearance, according to Chief of Laurel Police Department Tommy Cox, whose department filed the initial missing persons case after the family came to them for help.
The Taylorsville Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News for comment.
"This doesn't seem like the act of just one individual," Crump said during the press conference. "It kind of lines up with what Tiffany said, there was a lynch mob of three trucks chasing her son before he went missing."
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