By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
The Mississippi Link newspaper returned to Taylorsville on June 12, 2024, to seek an update on the Rasheem Carter disappearance, which remains unsolved twenty months after it happened. Per the Census, they have less than 1200 residents, folks seem cordial and do discuss the matter – but due to fear, not on the record.
We know that Rasheem Carter, a twenty-five-year-old man from Fayette, was working as a contractor in Taylorsville at the Georgia Pacific mill when he went missing October 2, 2022. We know that he called his mother, Tiffany Carter, seeking her guidance.
She has told numerous sources, including ABC News and CNN, that her son contacted her seeking help, saying he was being targeted and followed in his car by three trucks of white men. She told him to go to the police and he did, twice. He received no assistance or protection.
The following day, the Laurel Police Department reported him missing and last seen at the Super 8 Motel there. A month later remains were found in a wooded area just outside downtown Taylorsville, after a search triggered by a deer-cam photo of Carter. The remains were his. More remains have been discovered since, as well as his jeans containing his ATM card, cash and a phone charger.
On March 23, 2023, about a week after the CNN reporting, Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump spoke to Inside Edition about the case, and he shared then that, “officials with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said a forensic anthropology examination of Carter was completed by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office on Feb. 2, 2023, and there was no means by which the cause of death could be reasonably determined by the medical examiner’s office.” He added, “After Carter’s remains were found, the Smith County Sheriff’s office said authorities had ‘no reason to believe foul play was involved.’ “The sheriff from day one made a conclusion that there was no foul play and so his parents and family have very little trust in the Mississippi law enforcement authorities.” Crump referred to Carter’s death as “a modern-day Mississippi lynching,” pointing to the condition Carter’s body was in when it was found. “A head being decapitated seems to be not something that animals would do, but it seems like people would do.”
Following up on our first report on May 30, 2023, we spoke to several residents, starting at the Taylorsville Police Department where a white female dispatcher pointed us to the Smith County Sheriff’s Department. “It didn’t happen in our city limits, so Taylorsville is not responsible for it. They blame us because he came here, but we didn’t refuse him.”
When stating nothing has been solved yet, she replied, “It probably won’t, it’s probably a freak accident that happen you know.” When countering that it didn’t sound like an accident, she said, “you never know, there’s a lot of wild animals out there, and that’s just my opinion.” She stated that she was not here at the time, but indicated that she didn’t think anybody from here could have done that…maybe he was on PCP or something…they come here and line up in the yard protesting, but it happened in the county.”
A long-serving white pastor invited me to his office. “It got kind of tense here, this group came down to march and protest, because you’ve got people on both sides of that thing. I’ve been around these people a long time and there were accusations of Klan and that kind of thing…I’ll be honest with you, in all my years – no, that’s not the case. Are there racists, there’s racists on both sides. We are not racist. I have members that are African American. We have a food pantry on the third Thursday, we serve about 150 families in Smith County, and most are African American. I don’t see this as a racist town. I don’t know what happened to Rasheem but believe me there’s a lot of wild animals. I hope they find out what happened to that young man, but I don’t know what happened. It’s a tragic thing, but to say that it’s a massive cover-up, I don’t buy that.”
A long-serving African-American pastor invited me to sit with him on his porch. He shared, “As best I know it happened inside the city limits and animals are not capable of that…the whole town is worried about it, we have not been given information, it was a horrible act and it’s been closed up – no talking. God will bring it to light. Gods’ justice will prevail. This really did a job on this town. It’s created distrust and has brought things back to the surface – people never forget but you learn to deal with things – now it’s back on the surface again. Some people want to tell you that racism is not systematic, but it is. I pray that what happened will soon come out.”
A middle age Black woman on the outskirts of town has lived in Taylorsville her whole life, said, “Whoever that was that told you there is no Klan here is lying. I guarantee it. From everything I’ve heard, no animals did that. They used to come march, but they haven’t come for a while now.” When asked about fear, she shared, “I’m not afraid but I don’t go anywhere alone, but that’s just me. I’ve got kids and I make sure they know what to do and what not to do.”
In Raleigh, at the Smith County Sheriff’s Department, about 15 miles from Taylorsville, the dispatcher was courteous and asked me to write down my name and number and he would give Sheriff Joel Houston the message that I wanted to speak with him. There has been no call back.
Back in Taylorsville, a 35-year-old Black father of two, shared, “The whole thing is tragic. The best I know he went to police station right over here and asked for help and they turned him down, then a month later they found his bones in a field, head cut off. The clip I saw from the deer cam – that man was running from somebody, no question. You know they call this Mayberry, there’s a lot of racists, racial profiling, racial slurs. They try to keep it covered up, but they will laugh in your face and call you a nigger as soon as you turn your back. A lot of us live in fear, that’s why we keep our guns because I will protect my family. They need to get the Feds down here.”
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