Mysterious Hanging Deaths in Mississippi Spark Controversy Online

By: Lacey Banks

 On September 15th, 2025, Demartravion ‘Trey’ Reed, a 21-year-old black student at Delta State University was found hanging from a tree near the university’s pickleball courts at approximately 7:05 a.m. Many posts online reported that Reed had suffered from a broken leg prior to his death, insinuating that his death was not caused by his own matter, but instead a lynching. Lynching in the United States was overwhelmingly used to terrorize and control Black people, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. White mobs carried out these killings to enforce racial hierarchy and discourage black political, social, and economic progress. 

When asked about Reed’s death, Murray Roark, a deputy coroner at the Bolivar County Coroner’s Office told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 15, that he saw no broken bones and   believed Reed’s death was self-inflicted, suggesting a suicide. At a news conference on the same day, DSU police Chief Michael Peeler stated that investigators did not suspect foul play, meaning they did not believe violence or murder was involved. 

However, Reed was not the only body found that day. 

On September 15th Cory Zukatis, a 35-year-old white man was found deceased, hanging from a tree in a wooded area near the Ameristar Casino around 1:30 p.m., in Vicksburg, Mississippi, about 100 miles from DSU. Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said Zukatis was homeless and living in the wooded area where his body was found and he was on drugs at the time of his death. Although Zukatis was white, the matter of his death is similar to Reed’s and questions of foul play remain for both. Police have said that their deaths are not related to each other, but both bodies have been sent to a crime lab for an autopsy, where more information will be provided.