These 26 Small Town Horror Stories Will Leave You Shook

In the wee hours of a February morning in Morrisania, a neighborhood in the South Bronx, police say the remains of Tanya Byrd were found in a trash bag by a man who was walking his dog. After the dog’s intense sniffing led the man to open the bag and stick his hand inside, he thought it was a dead baby, he told reporters. After looking inside the bag, he saw Byrd’s hands and arms. Almost in tears of horror, he called the police.

The police arrived and found Byrd’s body parts in several heavy-duty plastic garbage bags and inside a duffel bag among trash piles in four different locations. The first bag contained a leg, the second a leg and arm, the third a portion of Byrd’s torso, and in the last one, her head, which police matched to a photo. Her son, 23-year-old Bahsid McLean, was seen donning a black bandana around his neck and a smirk on his face proudly lifting his hand to show off his mother’s severed head.

McLean and his accomplice who’s accused of helping stash the trash bags were arrested. He confessed to the brutal murder and told the judge during a court hearing that his mother was dying and he was trying to help her. However, by the time he was sentenced in 2016, he owned up to the callous crime.

On August 2, 2010, 18-year-old Latisha Fraizer was leaving her shift at a McDonald’s in Washington D.C. to return home but never made it. Over the next 24 hours, Latisha’s family tried to reach her but to no avail. Her phone went straight to voicemail. Their suspicions led them to file a missing person’s report to the police.

By 2011, the cops got a lead on Latisha’s disappearance after 23-year-old Brian Gaither confessed he was five other people including 17-year-old Johnnie A. Sweet the day Latisha disappeared. Sweet accused her of stealing $900 from him and conspired with the rest of the group to lure her to the home and beat her senseless. Sweet hit her repeatedly and followed by stomping on her. She was then bound by duct tape around her wrists and ankles and placed in a closet with a pillowcase taped over her head. At some point that night, one of the men strangled her unconscious. The following day, the suspects told investigators they found her dead.

The group allegedly dismembered her body in the bathtub of Sweet’s home and disposed of her remains in the dumpster which was collected by a waste management company and left in a landfill. Authorities said it was too dangerous to retrieve her body, saying they believe she’s 60 feet below the surface of it. However, conflicting statements from the suspect led police to believe her body could still be out there somewhere.

Tiffany Rubin and Jeffrey Salko split up just four months after their son, Kobe Lee, was born. By the time Lee was 7 years old, his father had joint custody of his son and saw him on the weekends. He was also facing jail time for not paying child support. Before he could face criminal punishment, he fled to his native home of South Korea on August 21. However, he’d taken Lee with him.

Rubin suspected her ex had kidnapped her son and taken him abroad. Her theories were proven true after scanning his emails and finding a note confirming he had plans to fly to South Korea and never come back. The FBI issued a warrant for Salko’s arrest but months went by without any new leads until someone sent Rubin a message online about her son. Rubin and the AALC then devised a plan to kidnap her son back.

By March, Rubin and a member of the Association for the Recovery of Children flew 15 hours to his school in Seoul. Rubin managed to snatch her son and flee but dressed her son in a wig, painted his face a few shades lighter and put him in a pink shirt to disguise him as a girl.

The two returned back to their home in Queens and Lee was reunited with his friends. Salko was eventually arrested in Guam in 2008 after trying to sneak back into the country. He pled guilty to kidnapping and spent two years in prison. After his release, he was ordered to have no contact with his son until he turned 18.

Indiana State Police say a Las Vegas themed suitcase was discovered by a mushroom hunter in April of 2022. After calling the police to report the luggage, the officers discovered the body of 5-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan. His autopsy revealed he died a week prior from vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration. The boy, who was unidentified at the time, was buried and police began the search for his alleged killers.

Fingerprints on the suitcase and cellphone data brought the cops to 41-year-old Dawn Elaine Coleman. She told investigators at the time of the boy’s disappearance that she was living with his mother, Dejuane Anderson, in Louisville. One evening, Coleman said she found Anderson lying on top of the boy who was pushed face down into the bed. “It was already done,” Coleman said to the investigators, implying the boy was dead.

She then said Anderson asked her to help place Cairo’s body into a trash bag and into the suitcase, which they dumped in the woods. As the police searched for Anderson, court documents laid out a series of concerning social media posts mentioning plans of an exorcism and claimed her child wasn’t really her child but an “avatar” stealing her energy.

Coleman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in November 2023. However, baby Cairo’s mother, Dejuane Anderson, is still at large and presumably on the run.

In 1932, 600 Black men were enrolled into a study by the doctors from the US Public Health Service who were looking for a cure for syphilis, a contagious venereal disease that ran rampant in the Black community.

The people who participated were mainly sharecroppers and most haven’t been to a doctor before. However, they were misled into believing they’d receive free medical care in exchange for handing over their bodies for science and were also told they were being treated for “bad blood.” Of the group, 399 men had latent syphilis and the control group of 201 did not have the disease. For the duration of the study, none of the men with syphilis were given any medication. The doctors simply watched the progression of the disease take over, causing the men to die, go blind, lose their minds or undergo other long-term health issues.

By the 1960s, a PHS investigator named Peter Buxton learned of the study and suggested a committee be formed to review the autopsies and the study’s findings. Buxton found that 28 people died from the disease, 100 died from complications related to the disease, 40 spouses had been infected with it and 19 children inherited the disease from birth.

Buxton leaked his findings to The Associated Press in July of 1972 and four months later, the 40-year experiment came to a close.

Fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins was sent to Empire Liquor Market on 91st Street and Figueroa Avenue by her mother on March 16, 1991. She went to the refrigerator section, picked up a $1.79 bottle of orange juice and briefly putting the bottle in her bag. Despite her having her money in hand, the cashier, Soon Ja Du, missed a glimpse of the cash and accused Harlins of stealing merchandise.

Surveillance cameras show that Du grabbed Harlins’ hair and banged her head on the counter while grabbing the bottle from her bag. Harlins then threw a few punches at Du and tried to escape her grasp. Du then threw a stool at her as she tried to make it toward the exit of the store. However, Du grabbed her gun and fired a shot at the back of Harlins head, killing her instantly. Du’s husband, who was sleeping in a van outside and called 911 to report an attempted robbery.

Police didn’t find any evidence that Harlins was shoplifting and Du was found guilty of manslaughter. Du faced 16 years in prison but was only sentenced to five years probation. The tension in the Black community around the case was already heightened because of the Rodney King beating by LAPD officers. Just days after Harlins was killed, the officers involved in King’s beating were acquitted. Harlins’ death is remembered as one of the sparks of the LA riots.

During the post-church rush on Sunday, May 26, 2023, 25-year-old Alicia Moore pulled up to Oviedo Mall. Leaving her 2-year-old and 4-year-old children inside the car, police say Moore and an unidentified male went inside the Dillards. Loss Prevention observed Moore and the man stealing a variety of items and monitored them for up to an hour. Moore headed toward the exit of the store, while holding the merchandise she hadn’t paid for. However, she dropped the items on the floor after catching a glimpse of the scene unfolding in the parking lot.

Moore’s vehicle had suddenly caught fire while she was shoplifting.

She immediately ran outside but by the time she got back to her car, the police say it was completely totaled by the flames. One child struggled to free themselves from the vehicle but eventually, shoppers who saw the fire stepped in and helped the two kids evacuate. They were both rushed to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital. One of them, a girl, was treated for several first degree burns to the face and ears.

Investigators say it’s possible Moore’s children were playing with matches or a lighter that was left inside the car. They also found the vehicle they were trapped inside of was stolen. Moore was arrested by the Seminole County Sheriff’s office but was charged with arson and child neglect after officials executed an outstanding warrant. The court revealed she was wanted for petty theft and assault and battery on a person over 65 years old in another county 50 miles west.

LaShawn Thompson was arrested in June of 2022 for a misdemeanor simple battery against police officers. He was held in Fulton County Jail awaiting his next hearing but was moved to the psychiatric wing of the hospital due to schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. After just three months, he was found dead in what authorities described as a “filthy jail cell.”

Thompson’s family claimed his death was a result of negligence from the medical staff. They alleged that one of the detention officers refused to administer CPR because she freaked out upon seeing the condition of Thomspon’s body. He had been 30 pounds thinner, down to the bone, and his skin appeared eroded by over 1,000 insect bites.

Fulton County’s medical examiner’s office listed Thompson’s manner and cause of death as undetermnined but an independent autopsy found he died of untreated decompensated schizophrenia in addition to dehydration, malnutrition and severe body insect infestation. The pathologist who conducted the independent review also found there was a period of 43 days with barely any documentation of care being delivered to Thompson.

The Atlanta Police Department and Georgia Bureau of Investigation launched probes into the tragedy.

Lauren Smith-Fields, 23, invited a 37-year-old white man she met on the dating app Bumble over to her house the evening of December 11, 2022. Her family said the two had spoken for three days before setting a date to meet in person. Authorities say the two met at Lauren’s home and drank alcohol throughout the night. The man told the police at some point, she paused to get up and meet her brother outside.

But after Smith-Fields returned, he said she ran to the bathroom to vomit. When she came back, Smith-Fields fell asleep on the couch and the man said carried her to her bedroom. He fell asleep beside her but woke up around 3 a.m. to use the bathroom. At that point, Smith-Fields was still asleep. However, when he woke up again around 6:30 a.m., the man saw her laying on her right side and noticed blood dripping down her nose. After he realized she wasn’t breathing, he called 911. Authorities say she was pronounced dead 15 minutes later upon their arrival. Smith-Fields’ autopsy stated her cause of death was a fentanyl overdose combined with alcohol.

It wasn’t until a day later that Smith-Fields’ mother said was notified about her daughter being dead and not by the police department, but by the landlord who told her who Smith-Fields was with the night she died. When Smith-Fields’ family arrived to pack her belongings, they found pieces of evidence including a pill bottle, used condom and bloody bed sheets which they had to beg the detective to use as evidence. Her family still believes her Bumble date had more to do with her death than he let on.

In May of 2022, two firefighters, Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek, responded to a house fire around 9 p.m. that sparked from faulty electrical wiring. At first, they couldn’t get inside the home but five minutes later found a way in. One firefighter went upstairs to check the rooms while the other remained downstairs. When the other came down, the two concluded the home was cleared of any survivors.

However, after the announcement, two more firefighters arrived on the scene and went back upstairs to remove an air conditioner to release smoke out the window. In the room, they found 9-year-old Lamar Mitchell and 12-year-old Zyaire Mitchell alive and breathing among the debris. The two were rushed to the hospital but died days later from smoke inhalation.

Later, it was found that Sniegocki and Zlotek made false reports claiming to have thoroughly checked the second floor for survivors. The fire department chief did his own walk-through of the home and saw no signs a search was even carried out in any of the bedrooms, according to department training.

Former Lance Corporal Brian Easley, 33, was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 2005 after serving in Kuwait and Iraq. He suffered from PTSD and schizophrenia and survived off the disability checks from the Department of Veteran Affairs. However, suddenly, the money stopped coming.

On the morning of July 7, 2017, the seemingly timid, soft-spoken veteran walked into a Wells Fargo bank with a backpack that allegedly contained a C-4 homemade explosive. Calmly, he told several employees and customers to leave but held two employees hostage. His captives, while frightened, described Easley as respectful and polite.

He then called 911 to report the incident and called WSB-TV to bring news coverage to his demands: a $892 check. Just as the trade for the hostages was being made a sniper took his shot at Easley through the window of the bank - ending the three-hour standoff.

On the night of January 24, 2023, a woman called the police on Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, who was acting as a caretaker for a white woman. However, five Franklin County deputies and a Richland police officer burst into the home claiming to execute a drug raid without a warrant.

Jenkins and Parker say they were handcuffed and called racial slurs but then, things escalated into cruel, violent torture. The two men said they were punched, kicked, tased, egged and waterboarded to elicit a confession. The officers were also accused of sexually assaulting the men with sex toys. One deputy got into a heated interaction with Jenkins, shoved his gun into his mouth and fired a shot. Jenkins suffered injuries to his mouth and face including a lacerated tongue and broken jaw.

None of the officers had their body cameras turned on. The six officers involved, who called themselves the “goon squad” for their history of covering up excessive force, were charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, home invasion and aggravated assault.

One afternoon, the 9-year-old son of Bryan Brunson, a white boy, stormed up the steps of the Nash household angrily demanding that their daughter, who is Black, come outside. The Nash’s front door camera caught the boy panting heavily in frustration, banging on the door with one hand and cracking a whip at the door with his other hand. When called about the whip, the police did nothing.

So, the Nash’s went to confront the boy’s dad, Mr. Brunson who greeted them at the door with a semi-automatic pistol in hand and fired a shot, endangering the lives of the couple and their daughter. Brunson was charged with deadly conduct from reckless discharge of a firearm.

Kendrick Johnson was found dead, rolled upside down in a wrestling mat at Lowndes County High School in 2013. Though the autopsy said he died of suffocation in some freak accident, Johnson’s family believed their son was killed. They have a point…some parts of this story just don’t add up.

Right before the incident, he was last seen with two white classmates who were named persons of interests. Reports say their father was an FBI agent but mysteriously resigned from the agency after his home was raided for evidence. Plus, there were gaps in the surveillance footage between when he was last seen and when he was found dead.

Finally, an independent autopsy found Johnson suffered blunt force trauma to the neck and that some of his organs were missing. Ultimately, the second investigation closed, no charges were filed and his death was ruled a “weird accident.” However, Johnson’s family continues to demand answers.

Back in 2020, Ariel Robinson brought home $25,000 after winning season 20 of Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America. However, the season was pulled immediately from television after Robinson was charged for the murder of her 3-year-old foster daughter.

Robinson and husband, Jerry Austin Robinson were accused of inflicting a series of blunt force injuries to the girl, Victoria. Ariel claimed she had gone to the grocery store the night before and her husband beat the child while she was gone. However, evidence showed Ariel was the one who fatally beat the toddler, who later died at the hospital.

The two were arrested in January 2021 and charged with homicide by child abuse. A jury convicted Robinson on the charge and sentenced her to life in prison. Ariel’s husband pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder. He’s awaiting sentencing.

In 1952, Atlanta Reverend William Elder died after eating a snack of bananas and cheese. The coroner who examined Elder found his body had been decomposing as if he ingested poison. Once arsenic was found in his body, the police began investigating a string of deaths that occurred on the same street. Their prime suspect was Roberta Elder, the reverend’s wife.

A year into their marriage, William’s daughter became ill and died. A year later, his other daughter died of similar causes. The day William died, Roberta waited to call the doctor until he was near his deathbed and offered him Milk of Magnesia to help his condition - the same remedy she gave to his two deceased daughters.

Upon the police investigation, the bodies of William’s daughters were exhumed and reported to have traces of arsenic. The authorities also found Roberta had taken out life insurance policies on each family member, and collected the policies following their deaths. By the time the investigation was coming to a close, they suspected her of being a suspect in the mysterious killings of ten more people including three of her own children and her mother.

She was sentenced to life in prison on circumstantial evidence.

Courtney and Nicole Mallery own a 1,000-acre plot of land named the Freedom Acres Ranch in El Paso County, Colorado. In 2020, they began to notice their property had been vandalized and livestock killed. Among the range of goats, pigs and chickens they own, many were found beheaded, butchered or missing. They shared graphic images to the local news showing their baby goats that were allegedly poisoned and a cow with its insides spilling on the ground.

The Mallerys suspected their white neighbors were to blame for the heinous acts but then soon faced danger themselves. According to the Mallerys, Courtney was chased by a white neighbor driving in their truck while trying to repair the fence and another time, Nicole was followed in her car by a white woman holding a gun and was nearly run off the road.

The couple made 19 complaints, filed six restraining orders and made 170 calls to 911 but still, the sheriff never made a police report. Instead, he obeyed the 911 call from one of the white neighbors claiming the Mallerys were stalking them with their surveillance cameras. The Mallerys were both charged with felony stalking and have since had their charges dropped by the district attorney.

In 1915, 30-year-old Essie Dunbar fell from an epileptic seizure in South Carolina. After the fall, she wasn’t breathing and the family called a doctor to confirm if she had died. Dr. D.K. Briggs examined her and pronounced her as deceased after finding no signs of life. The family moved on with the funeral arrangements the following day, measuring her coffin, placing her body inside and nailing it shut. However, minutes after the dirt had been piled into the burial plot, Dunbar’s sister arrived.

She pleaded with the preachers to raise the casket and allow her to see her sister. They agreed with her request and dug Dunbar back up and unscrewed the coffin to find Dunbar was still alive. She sat up in her coffin with a smile on her face looking at her sister. The shock was so intense, the three ministers hosting the funeral service fell backwards into the grave, injuring themselves. Even Dunbar’s family and friends scattered from the scene of what they thought was a ghost or zombie.

Essie climbed out and tried running after them but they only grew more terrified. She walked back into town by herself into a new life of solitude after locals labeled her as the “haunted woman” or “woman who defeated death.” Dunbar lived another 40 years past her initial confirmation of death and took her last breath at 70 years old in 1962.

Twenty-five year old Carlee Russell went missing the evening of Thursday, July 13, 2023 after calling 911 to report a little boy with a diaper and white shirt on the side of interstate 459. The Hoover police department arrived within five minutes of being dispatched and said they found Carlee’s car still running with the door open and outside of the vehicle, they retrieved her phone, Apple Watch, purse and wig.

Two days later around 10:30 PM, her parents called 911 to report that their daughter returned home but walked by foot. Before Carlee was taken to the hospital for evaluation, she told the police she was abducted by a man who emerged from the treeline when she went to approach the baby. Her parents say they believe she was abducted and fought for her life. However, the police showed skepticism in Carlee’s story because her phone records show searches related to Amber Alerts, the movie Taken and how to steal money from a cash register from before her disappearance and the day of.

Eventually, Carlee admitted the disappearance was a hoax and confirmed the cops’ suspicions. She’s now facing a year of prison time.

On July 29, 2022, 9-year-old Zi-Ariel Oliver, 8-year-old A’Miyah Hughes and 5-year-old Temari Oliver were being babysat by their cousin while their mother was working. However, they vanished around 9 p.m. and their cousin called the police to report they had gone missing. Police from the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Parks and Wildlife officials scoured the area that night to search for them and came across something near a pond at a property 200 yards west of their home on Highway 77. The search team recovered a pair of shoes at the edge of the water. Around 3 a.m. on July 30th, a dive team discovered the bodies of the girls in the pond.

Initially, authorities ruled the girls’ death as an accidental drowning but in March of 2023, the Cass County District Attorney’s Office launched a new investigation upon the shocking discoveries revealed from the autopsy. The report found the girls had strangulation marks on their necks and lacerations to their face. Instead of a drowning, the girls’ manner of death was determined to be a homicide.

The DA’s office then launched additional DNA testing and obtained witness statements to find a potential killer. As far as we know, the last person to lay eyes on the girls was the cousin who was “babysitting” but police have not named them as a suspect. No arrests have been made in connection to the deaths.

In May, community activist Antoine “D-Ice” Dobine was walking with a neighbor on 119th and Eggleston discussing renovations for the abandoned and boarded buildings in the West Pullman neighborhood. However, his conversation was interrupted by the sounds of banging on a window.

“Who is that?” he asked.

“Help!” the voice of a woman screamed from the other side.

Dobine called the police and went on Facebook live to document the incident, noting he saw a man fleeing the area minutes ago. The police entered the red brick house and minutes later, officer with a 36-year-old woman inside who had been chained and sexually assaulted. She was transported to the hospital for evaluation and questioning. The woman said four days prior, she walked into a corner store and ran into 44-year-old Joel Cammon who was working as a security guard at the store. After accidentally bumping into him, he told her “Come here for a minute,” but seconds later he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the store. The woman said she struggled to fight him off as she was abducted into a nearby abandoned home where she was thrown in the basement and then dragged to the attic where she was chained to the floor by her ankles.

The woman told the police Cammon raped her twice. Hour on the hour she cried for help praying someone would hear her until finally, D-Ice heard her.

On the evening of June 7, 1998, 49-year-old James Byrd was walking home from a friend’s party in Jasper, Texas when he was approached by a truck full of white men who asked him if he needed a ride home. Little did Byrd know, the men had strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd hopped in the back of the truck, Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King took him down an old town road and stopped the car. The three men then dragged Byrd out of the back of the pickup truck and brutally beat him. Police say Byrd was kicked, punched and attacked with beer bottles. The men also urinated and defecated on him and spray painted his face.

Finally, the men chained Byrd by his ankles to the back of a pickup truck and drove wildly down the road for about three miles. The car was moving so fast, Byrd’s body swung back and forth, causing the asphalt to riddle the backside of his body down to the bone, leaving a trail of flesh and blood on the ground. Forensic experts say he was conscious for most of the dragging until he was swung over a concrete drainage culvert causing his head to sever from his body along with one of his arms.

Once the car stopped, the three men dumped the remains of Byrd’s body in a cemetery and drove off to a barbecue like nothing happened. A passerby found Byrd’s body and reported it to the police. The authorities say they found 81 different places where Byrd’s scattered remains were found.

In March of 2022, 14-year-old Tyre Sampson visited ICON Park for his spring break. He went to board the FreeFall ride, a 430-foot tall drop tower, however, he exceeded the ride’s weight requirements by about 100 pounds. Somehow, the ride operator managed to buckle him into a seat and proceeded to turn on the ride. Once the ride began ascending into the air, Seconds later, Sampson fell to his death. His autopsy said he suffered blunt force trauma, fractures and hemorrhaging to his head.

Sampson’s family attained Benjamin Crump to represent them in a lawsuit against the amusement park and the ride’s manufacturer. However, an investigation into the incident found the ride operator manually adjusted Sampson’s seat before he boarded the ride, creating a large gap between the harness and the seat. The ride operator announced the attraction will be permanently torn down. They still face a wrongful death suit.

Shanquella Robinson was found dead while on a trip to Mexico with a group of six friends in October of 2022. Authorities initially reported no foul play suspected in her murder. However, one of Robinson’s friends took to Facebook alleging that the others on the trip had something to do with her death.

Social media users all over began scrubbing the internet for videos of Robinson and her friends posted to Instagram or TikTok of their trip. Of the footage, surfaced a disturbing video of Robinson being beaten by one of the girls on the trip. Robinson’s father alleged in that video, she had been grabbed by the neck and body slammed onto the floor. These allegations reflected the autopsy report which stated Robinson suffered a broken neck and fractured spinal cord. Contrary to the report, her friends alleged she died of alcohol poisoning, which made them look even more suspicious. Additionally, the doctor who responded to their call for help when Robinson was found unconscious, said she wanted to transfer her to the hospital immediately and they refused.

After 14 sessions of CPR, six electric shocks and five doses of adrenaline, Robinson died. The overwhelming call for justice gathered attention from the US Embassy in Mexico City, US Attorney’s Office in North Carolina and even the White House to get involved. One of the six friends was named a suspect by the family and prosecutors in Baja California.

O’Shea Sibley was a professional dancer who worked across the northeast. Sibley belonged to several dance groups including Philadelphia’s beloved Phildanco and participated in dance classes at the Ailey Extension American Dance Theater where he was praised for his energy and talent across dance genres. However, on the evening of Saturday, July 19th, Sibley didn’t know his spontaneous voguing bit for fun would be his last performance.

At a gas station near Coney Island, Sibley and his friends parked their car and upon hearing the chords to a song from Beyonce’s “Renaissance” album, Sibley began dancing in his swim trunks. A witness said a teenager approached him, ordering him to stop voguing because he was being offensive to his religion, Islam. An argument erupted after a few alleged homophobic comments were made toward Sibley and his friends and moments later, a physical altercation ensued.

The teen stabbed Sibley in the torso and fled the scene. Sibley staggered away to a sidewalk where he collapsed on the ground. Paramedics arrived on the scene and took him to Maimonides Medical Center but nothing that could be done to save his life. The suspect was identified as a 17-year-old wearing a black shirt and red shorts. The NYPD said they are investigating the senseless killing as a hate crime. In remembrance of her beloved fan, Beyonce posted a small tribute to Sibley on her website.

Twenty eight-year-old Sandra Bland was followed by Texas state trooper Brian Encinia July 10, 2015. Upon noticing the police officer accelerate closer to her rear, she switched lanes but Encinia pulled her over for failing to signal the lane change. A 51-minute dash camera video showed the heated interaction between Bland and the officer. Encinia told Bland she appeared irritated to which she responded that she was annoyed because he tailed her and pulled her over. The officer then asked her to put out her cigarette and step out of the car, which she refused to do while asking for a reason why. After this point, things escalated.

Encinia began yelling at Bland to get out of the car, and threatened to yank her out while drawing his Taser. He then grabbed Bland and pushed her into the ground as she complained that he was hurting her. She was taken to Waller County jail. However, three days after she was booked, she was found hanging from a plastic bag in her cell. Bland’s family and friends immediately speculated the conclusion of Bland’s autopsy that she died by suicide. However, authorities say during her intake interview, she mentioned that she attempted suicide after the loss of her baby a year prior.

Theories that Bland was killed by the detention officers became more intense as the public speculated that she was dead in her mugshot, claiming her eyelids may have been taped open and the position of her neck and shoulders looked as though she was lying on the ground. The police disputed this claim.