An independent pathologist released the initial findings from the autopsy of Dexter Wade, the Mississippi man fatally struck by a police car earlier this year and buried by the county unbeknownst to his family. The findings reveal Wade had identification on him at the time of his death.
Dr. Frank Peretti, hired by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, released the initial findings following the exhumation of Wade’s body. Peretti noted that Wade had several identifying items on his person, including his health insurance card and identification which contained his home address.
Peretti said Wade was “completely run over” by the police car that struck him back in March. The report also said Wade’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition and that he suffered multiple blunt force injuries to the skull, ribs, and pelvis. His left leg was also amputated.
Wade wasn’t embalmed when the county buried him in a Hinds County pauper’s grave weeks following the incident.
“The tragic news we received from the independent pathologist today was heartbreaking for everyone who knew and cared for Dexter Wade, especially his mother. The fact that Dexter had a state identification card and several other identifying items shows us that there was a concerted effort to keep the truth and manner of his death from his family. There is no excuse, not even incompetence, for not notifying a next of kin of an identified man’s death,” Crump said in a statement.
After the incident, the Hinds County coroner’s office identified Wade from a bottle of prescribed medication and shared his information with the Jackson Police Department to notify the family, per NBC’s report. However, Wade’s mother, Bettersten Wade, said she didn’t learn of her son’s death until almost seven months later.
“If they had a wallet and knew where his address was, why didn’t they just visit his address when he was laying out on the freeway, and come get me so I could have seen my son?” she said via NBC.
It’s the latest blow Bettersten has endured in the progress of this case. On Monday, when Wade’s body was scheduled to be exhumed, she learned that the coroner’s office dug up her son hours before the agreed time. She and Crump are demanding the truth in what they see as a coverup.