> "It is not a secret burial ground," she said. "In those graves are the bodies of those who went unclaimed by family when they died. These persons are either homeless people, inmates from local jails who died but relatives never claimed their bodies, unidentified persons who officials were never able to connect with family, or even persons who died" whose families couldn't afford a funeral.
An investigation would be a very good idea just to make sure that none of those bodies were being dumped there by the prison or by the police. Especially since the police were lying to families about the "missing" relatives that ended up there.
That might be true of many of those buried there. But the story describes someone who wasn't unidentified; he was buried with his ID in his pocket and his family had been looking for him for months. At best incompetence, but given the circumstances (evidently he was killed when he was hit by an off duty cop's car) it looks suspicious, like they might have been trying to cover it up.
According to some posts I read on Reddit about this it was likely a retaliation thing after a family member of the victim was beaten to death by a fellow police officer who is now in prison.
NPR is very much implying the "paupers grave" is being used by the police to dump "inconvenient bodies"
Bettersten Wade told the anguishing story of how, months after she filed a missing persons report about her son, Dexter Wade, she was finally told that her son was dead at age 37. The police also told her that county officials had buried him in the local pauper's field, she said.
Police investigators said Dexter Wade had been struck and killed by an SUV driven by an off-duty Jackson Police Department officer on Interstate 55, just hours after his mother last saw him. The police report said Wade was on foot at the time.
Naturally police investigated and determined it was all an accident, neglected to inform the family, and had a bit of a red tap boo boo with the paperwork.
Oops! Definitely. It actually looks to have been a clever use of irony. The internet is such a hard place to be clever though, in that people tend to take things at face value.
The NBC article they link to (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bettersten-wade-dexter-...) says that it wasn't the just family making repeated calls to the police asking about the guy they hit, the coroner’s office was too. There was something very wrong with that police department.
It’s hard to understand the mindset of casual incompetence and corruption if you’re not from there. Local government runs on nepotism and good ol boys networks - it’s such a standard ingrained practice that it is not even surprising or cause for concern when you notice it. It’s part of why these areas stay perpetually poor and get brain drained to hell
"It's not a placed to dump inconvenient bodies, it's just a place where at least some of the bodies are people of known identity who were killed by police or corrections officers that cleared themselves of wrongdoing and somehow forgot to tell anyone."
Very reassuring. I think we can all agree that this isn't worth investigating because Mississippi has always been a place bereft of racial bias and government corruption.
what does this even mean ? did the person refuse to say who they are ? so the person has been tried and sentenced and put in jail and filed under a picture. so you can put anybody in jail, deny him any contact with external world and claim he's unidentified ?
> These persons are either homeless people, inmates from local jails who died but relatives never claimed their bodies, unidentified persons who officials were never able to connect with family, or even persons who died" whose families couldn't afford a funeral.
"Inmates from local jails" and "unidentified persons" are separate categories.
Another issue with this burial arrangement is that the deceased are interred in a restricted area.
This is completely counter to the long established design and custom of cemeteries - which is to be a welcoming place for loved ones.
And counties bury paupers in established cemeteries. Hines county certainly did as well. And did so long before this dumping ground was started. The procedures to inter these people in public cemeteries where already in place. They simply needed to be followed.
There is no need to put grieving families though a restricted entrance process, just so they can visit their loved one's graveside.
> Another issue with this burial arrangement is that the deceased are interred in a restricted area.
Perhaps even more tragic is that these sort of burial arrangements are commonplace at state psychiatric hospitals.
These hospitals are where they send the worst of the worst: uncontrollable, criminally insane, extreme and present danger to self and others. And then, of course, people die in custody and they are sometimes buried on the grounds, behind bars, essentially, in a cemetery where nobody can visit them, except perhaps the staff of that self-same hospital, who aren't likely to care in a month, much less 20 years down the line.
What surprise me the most is that when I usually post stories like these, they get buried/flagged almost right away... luckily it didnt happen in this case.
I first thought this was one of those cryptic YouTube things. Holy smokes is this terrible. No person deserves an unmarked grave. Everyone deserves a proper burial or cremation.
33 comments
[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 78.8 ms ] threadAn investigation would be a very good idea just to make sure that none of those bodies were being dumped there by the prison or by the police. Especially since the police were lying to families about the "missing" relatives that ended up there.
These things happen.
>> These things happen.
No, they really don’t. That’s why it has made national news.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_event
It’s hard to understand the mindset of casual incompetence and corruption if you’re not from there. Local government runs on nepotism and good ol boys networks - it’s such a standard ingrained practice that it is not even surprising or cause for concern when you notice it. It’s part of why these areas stay perpetually poor and get brain drained to hell
They have their own laws
> These things happen.
215 times, apparently.
"It's not a placed to dump inconvenient bodies, it's just a place where at least some of the bodies are people of known identity who were killed by police or corrections officers that cleared themselves of wrongdoing and somehow forgot to tell anyone."
Very reassuring. I think we can all agree that this isn't worth investigating because Mississippi has always been a place bereft of racial bias and government corruption.
"Inmates from local jails" and "unidentified persons" are separate categories.
https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings/tree...
This is completely counter to the long established design and custom of cemeteries - which is to be a welcoming place for loved ones.
And counties bury paupers in established cemeteries. Hines county certainly did as well. And did so long before this dumping ground was started. The procedures to inter these people in public cemeteries where already in place. They simply needed to be followed.
There is no need to put grieving families though a restricted entrance process, just so they can visit their loved one's graveside.
Perhaps even more tragic is that these sort of burial arrangements are commonplace at state psychiatric hospitals.
These hospitals are where they send the worst of the worst: uncontrollable, criminally insane, extreme and present danger to self and others. And then, of course, people die in custody and they are sometimes buried on the grounds, behind bars, essentially, in a cemetery where nobody can visit them, except perhaps the staff of that self-same hospital, who aren't likely to care in a month, much less 20 years down the line.