‘Modern-Day Lynching’: The Bizarre 2022 Death of Rasheem Carter

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The bizarre 2022 death of 25-year-old Rasheem Ryelle Carter took the internet by storm when accusations flew about his death being a modern-day lynching. Rasheem had called and texted his mother about white men causing trouble and wanting to harm him. Shortly after, he disappeared, and his remains were found precisely one month later.

Who Was Rasheem Carter?

Rasheem was born on October 28, 1996, to Robert Lee Frye, now deceased, and Tiffany Carter. He has a brother, Christopher Carter, and one daughter, Cali.

He graduated from Hinds Community College in 2016 with a Welding and Cutting Technology degree. According to his obituary, he was a chef, entrepreneur, millwright, and music artist.

Rasheem resided in Fayette, Mississippi. In August 2019, he opened his first business, Cali’s Express, a seafood restaurant, which closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His mother said he later worked as a welder to earn money to get the restaurant up and running again.

On Sunday, September 25, 2022, Rasheem prepared to depart for Taylorsville for a short-term contractor job as a millwright for Clements Mechanical, based out of North Carolina and owned by Stephen Lucas “Luke” Clements. However, Rasheem had car trouble and asked his cousin to drive him to the Super 8 by Windham Laurel, 125 miles away.

According to a family member, Rasheem checked into the motel on September 26. Eduardo Vasquez was also staying at the motel, and Rasheem had previously roomed with him. Vasquez agreed to give Rasheem rides to the job site. 

Rasheem’s mother, Tiffany Carter, FaceTimed him on Thursday, September 29. She could tell something was bothering him, but Rasheem said he was tired.

At a press conference on Monday, March 13, 2023, Tiffany said that Rasheem later texted her, stating that he was having problems with his coworkers and feared for his life. 

“Me and the owner of this company are not seeing eye to eye,” Rasheem texted. “If anything happens to me [he] is responsible for it .. he got these guys wanting to kill me.”

The Disappearance of Rasheem Carter

At the March 2023 press conference Tiffany also said that Rasheem had called her on Saturday, October 1, 2022. He and Vasquez had argued over something that day, and Vasquez refused to transport Rasheem to and from the job site from that point forward. Rasheem did not tell his mother what the argument was about.

However, Rasheem had no way of returning to the motel after work and began to walk toward Taylorsville, likely hoping to hitch a ride to Laurel. Two of Rasheem’s coworkers spotted him walking and drove him into Taylorsville, dropping him off at the Jr. Food Mart at 108 Mayfield Street. 

It needs to be clarified where the job site was and why the coworkers did not drive him back to his motel in Laurel, which is only a half hour away.

“My son told me it was three truckloads of white guys trying to kill him,” Tiffany said. Rasheem also mentioned the name of the man he feared and said the group of men hurled racial insults at him.

Rasheem walked to the Family Dollar, about a two-minute trek from the food mart, and wandered inside the store. But then he heard the cashier say, “Yes, he’s in here,” and ran from the building, still on the phone with his mother.

Tiffany told her son to go to the Taylorsville Police Department, 107 Jane Street, for help, and Rasheem did as instructed. He told a dispatcher that someone was after him, but it is unclear what really transpired there.

Then-Taylorsville police chief Lance Gabriel “Gabe” Horn later said: “He told the officer that night that he and his roommates had a verbal disagreement and he felt threatened and that was it. ”  

Rasheem left the police station and walked to a nearby gas station. A Taylorsville police officer arrived at the gas station and told Rasheem’s family that Rasheem had come out from behind the building as if he was hiding from someone. Rasheem asked the officer if he could take him to Laurel, but the officer refused, stating Laurel was “out of his jurisdiction.” 

Rasheem was still on the phone with his mother, who heard the officer. However, Horn later contradicted that statement, telling WDAM that he did not assign an officer to take Rasheem to Laurel due to “staffing shortages.”

Nevertheless, the officer told Rasheem he could get a room at the Royal Inn, but Rasheem did not want to stay there. Rasheem and the officer went back to the police station.

According to Tiffany, Rasheem asked the police if he could stay at the police station until his ride arrived, but the officers said he could not. Horn contradicted the Carters again, telling WDAM that they offered to let Rasheem stay at the department to wait for his ride.

Rasheem left the station, and the officers later said they did not know he had gone on foot or by car. 

It is unknown where Rasheem went after leaving the station and where he stayed that night. However, according to a family member, he returned to the police station at 5:30 a.m. on October 2, 2022.

Sheriff Joel Houston (SCSO) claimed Rasheem never said he was in danger.

“To them, he never seemed to be in any distress or anything and he never mentioned anything about being in immediate danger. They offered him a phone call and he said he had a phone and they even offered him a charger but the charger that was available didn’t fit his phone, so he was just trying to find a ride back to Laurel when he came in contact with police,” Houston said.  

Meanwhile, Tiffany, who lived in Pennsylvania, arranged to have someone drive to Taylorsville to pick up Rasheem. However, when that person arrived, she could not find Rasheem. She went to the police station, drove to the Super 8 in Laurel, and back to Taylorsville, but Rasheem had vanished into thin air.

Worried about her son, Tiffany arrived in Taylorsville on October 3, 2022. According to the family member, Tiffany went straight to the TPD but was treated with absolute disrespect. 

“Bastards talked to her so mean and disrespectful. They told her she failed her son and also his family because we didn’t come and get him,” said a family member.

The officer, likely Horn, told Tiffany that her son was disobedient ‘because you told him to stay at the station, and he left.”  

Taylorsville PD did not search for Rasheem. The police report was ultimately filed in Laurel, the last known place Rasheem had stayed, even though he never returned there. 

The family obtained the CCTV footage from the dollar store, which showed Rasheem exiting the store at 10:45 a.m. on October 2. They began an extensive search after police told them Rasheem’s cell phone had pinged in the Clear Creek area.

The family searched that area and around the food mart and dollar store but found no trace of Rasheem.

Weird Trail Cam Image

Nearly a month later, on October 28, 2022, police released trail cam footage, timestamped 4:32 p.m. on October 2, 2022, of a shirtless Rasheem in a wooded area carrying what looked like a large branch. Investigators claimed to have seen all the trail cam footage, but no one else was in the video. Rasheem’s family stated that they only received one image and that authorities told them there were no other pictures. But if it was from a trail cam, where is the “all the video footage” authorities viewed, and why didn’t they show Tiffany? Why did the police release only one still image to the public?

The Death of Rasheem Carter and Police Failure to Investigate

On November 2, 2022, partial remains were found in south of Taylorsville in Smith County, 300 yards from where Rasheem was seen in the deer cam image. I do not know the exact location of the trail cam.

“At first, when the first of Rasheem’s remains were discovered with his head decapitated from his body, officials told the family that it was animals that killed Rasheem. Officials later said that they believed he was murdered,” Crump said in April 2023.

The first set of Carter’s remains were found just a few days before his funeral, according to the family. “They only had like 15 bones, they had a skull and like a rib bone and a clavicle and a mandible,” Kaho said. (Whitfield-Anderson, 2023)

Rasheem’s spinal cord was found in a separate location from the other remains.

On February 23, 2023, a third set of remains were found. DNA tests proved they belonged to Rasheem.  A fourth set of remains were found in neighboring Simpson County on April 30, 2023, but later Simpson County authorities claimed they were animal remains. Crump and his legal team were notified of the remains via a bystander who captured on video police discovering what appeared to be human remains.

“There is no excuse for bystanders coming showing video to the family, and officials not having the dignity and respect to notify the family immediately, and say ‘We found more human remains in the vicinity where your son’s head and spinal cord and other bodily remains were found,'” Crump said.

Some question whether the fourth set of remains belonged to animals and think that authorities lied. Smith County Sheriff’s Office officials claimed there is “no reason to believe foul play was involved.”

A medical examiner could not determine the cause or manner of death due to decomposition. An independent autopsy found that Rasheem’s head had been severed. Police claimed animals had scattered Rasheem’s remains. They have entirely disregarded the trail cam footage showing a SHIRTLESS Rasheems running for his life. 

Clements Denies Involvement

Once Rasheem’s death became national, the identity of the owner of Clements Mechanical went public. Luke Clements and his WHITE attorney went on national television and denied Clements’s involvement in Rasheem’s death. But Clements stumbled over his words and whined mostly about the hate he and his family received, saying they were in hiding. 

“We started getting death threats … They started making accusations for my wife and my kids, and then it was relentless,” Clements told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield. 

Cue the tiny violin. I believe it because people will come for you online when you do something awful. Just sayin’.

Banfield seemed to take his side, reading out the “horrendous” text messages he allegedly received, although she doesn’t show them on camera, only reads them. She mentioned twice that Tiffany has never shown the texts to anyone, which appears as if Banfield questioned the validity of those texts. But why would a grieving mother lie?

Clements contacted his local law enforcement agency in Pleasant Hill, North Carolina, and said they have been “extremely supportive.”  Banfield said, “Evidence shows Clements was not involved in the crime.” 

According to Clements’s lawyer, the “evidence” is texts between Rasheem and Clements that show a friendly conversation the night before he vanished. 

The attorney also claimed he had employment, phone, and other records (he did not mention the content of these different records) that showed Clements was at the work site on October 2, 2022, from 6:22 a.m. to 8:44 p.m. in a secured facility and never left. The lawyer further claimed Clements took and passed a polygraph test, although police have never confirmed it. Clements’s attorney never showed these “records” on camera, so it is his word against the Carter family.

Carter Family Calls for Federal Investigation

At a May 2023 press conference, Rasheem’s family called for a federal investigation into his death. In March of that year, Sheriff Houston told CNN that local authorities were still investigating. 

“To this date, we do not have evidence of foul play, but everything is on the table. Until we turn over every stone, it’s still an open investigation,” Houston said. 

But the family was not buying it and believed Rasheem’s death was a modern-day lynching and accused the local police of failing to investigate Rasheem’s death. One could also look at it as a police cover-up. Me, I’m the one.

“I am overwhelmed with the oppression that this state has caused in our lives. I want something done, and I want it done immediately. I’m tired of waiting,” Tiffany said at a press conference with the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. “I know I can’t change what has happened, but we can make the change that this doesn’t happen to another family.”

One year after Rasheem’s death, his family still had no answers, and the police were not keeping them updated with the investigation. 

“If you [official investigators] have done everything you can,” Tiffany Carter told ABC News. “Why I still don’t have an answer to what happened to my son?”

Since last year, the case has stayed dormant, and Rasheem’s family may never get the answers they desperately seek. Rasheem left behind his daughter, Calli Ryelle Carter.

TCD’s Thoughts

Was Rasheem’s death a murder? YES. Was it racially motivated? I believe it was and I believe his mother.

Rasheem’s phone pinged near Clear Creek. When I looked up Horn’s address, it showed he and his wife HEATHER either currently live in that area or, at the very least, own property there. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Horn refuses media interviews now, but I’m sure he has nothing to hide. 🫢

The Taylorsville PD’s refusal to take Rasheem back to Laurel is highly suspicious. I really doubt that a DECENT and HONEST cop would have refused knowing this young man had no other way of getting there.

All of this started after Rasheem and Vasquez’s argument. What did they argue over, and did Vasquez ever speak with the police? How does Vasquez feel now that he was a jerk and refused to give Rasheem rides? Or was he one of the men in the trucks chasing after Rasheem? Who were the others staying at the same motel and working with Rasheem? Why do we NOT know their identities?

Unlike Banfield, I believe Tiffany Carter and that Rasheem did tell her about the white men in trucks. Rasheem made it CRYSTAL CLEAR to his mother that WHITE MEN were after him. He NAMED one of them, and I would wager it was Clements. Rasheem was not paranoid or delusional; he was SCARED. Then, he ended up dead with his body parts found in SEVERAL locations. Animals? Maybe. But they’re only guilty of possibly scattering the remains, not killing Rasheem. But nope, no foul play here, police say. I want to punch them in the face. Hard. Like knocking teeth out hard. Imbeciles.

I believe these men in the trucks, who, let’s face it, have KKK written all over them, chased and killed him. I also think Horn took part in it somehow because Rasheem’s phone pinged near Horn’s property. That’s not a coincidence. I’d wager that Horn got to know Clements and his gang pretty well during their time in Taylorsville. Birds of a feather… 😏

Let’s talk about the trail cam. This young man was running SHIRTLESS through the woods carrying what looked like a large tree branch, although I think it might be one hanging from a tree. Why did the authorities never explain why Rasheem was NOT wearing a shirt? What happened to the shirt? Where is it? How did Rasheem get to this area? Rasheem’s case reminds me of the Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen, who took his victims to the wilderness, released them, and then hunted them like animals. Did the men in trucks do the same with Rasheem?

His mother believes the dark patches on his skin are bruises, but the police automatically said “shadows.” The authorities claim no one else was seen in the footage, but I do not believe them, considering it’s clear they are hiding or covering up something. Tiffany said she received only ONE still image from the video. ONE. I’m no expert on trail cams, but don’t they record video, too?

Now, let’s discuss the remains. Look again at the photo of the skull above. Do you see anything weird about it? Well, I see a skull cut nearly in half, yet no outlet discusses it. Am I truly only seeing things? Because I acknowledge that is possible. 🤣 But that is not an ordinary skull, and animals could NOT do that. WTF.

We know that Clements and Rasheem had issues right before his death. I don’t think Clements is as innocent as he portrays. He knows what happened to Rasheem, as do all of Rasheem’s coworkers. 

In addition to Clements Mechanical, the Clements family owns Big Johns Store, Clements Family Farms, and Clements Family Farms Greenhouse.  

I disagree with the hate they received, but I don’t think going on NewsNation did what Clements wanted it to do. He came across as nervous and untruthful. I understand being nervous because it was national TV, but why did Clements retain a lawyer if he was innocent? Why did he feel the need to defend himself publicly? People will still question your actions, and it likely made matters worse. 

I will keep this article updated if anything new occurs. I really hope the Carter family get justice for Rasheem.

Sources

Banfield, Ashleigh, and Liz Jassin. “Rasheem Carter’s Former Boss Denies Involvement in Death.” NewsNation, March 29, 2023. https://www.newsnationnow.com/banfield/rasheem-carters-former-boss-denies-involvement-in-death

Musumeci, Natalie. “What We Know As Family Alleges’ Lynching.'” Business Insider, May 11, 2023. https://www.businessinsider.com/rasheem-carter-death-family-allege-lynching-cops-2023-3 

Negussie, Tesfaye. 2023a. “Rasheem Carter Update: 4th Set of Remains May Belong to Black Man Found With Head Severed.” ABC 7 Chicago, May 13, 2023. https://abc7chicago.com/rasheem-carter-mississippi-case-update-human-remains-found/13242827/

—2023b. “DA Pushes Back on Claims of More Remains Found in Rasheem Carter Case.” ABC 7 Chicago, May 16, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/US/rasheem-carters-family-presses-justice-remains-found-mississippi/story?id=99255001

—2023c. “A Year After Black Man Disappeared Under Mysterious Circumstances, Questions Remain.” ABC 7 Chicago, October 2, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/US/rasheem-carters-mother-speaks-1-year-after-disappearance/story?id=103660675 

“Rasheem Ryelle Carter.” Online Memorial. FindAGrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/249715198/rasheem-ryelle-carter 

Singh, Namita. “Rasheem Carter Seen ‘Running For His Life’ in New Trail Camera Image Before His Death.” The Independent, March 16, 2023. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/rasheem-carter-death-mississippi-racism-b2301975.html

Whitfield-Anderson, Jayla. “Rasheem Carter Was Found Decapitated in Miss. Woods. His Family Believes He Was Murdered.” Yahoo News, May 16, 2023. https://www.yahoo.com/news/rasheem-carter-was-found-decapitated-in-miss-woods-his-family-believes-he-was-murdered-184022936.html