May 29--There is no evidence that the death of Otis Byrd, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi, was a homicide, federal officials announced Friday.
The investigation ended without charges, officials said. The death had raised fears of a racial lynching, a onetime practice in the South.
"After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that there was no evidence to prove that Byrd's death was a homicide," the Justice Department announced. "Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."
Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas said he agreed with the Justice Department decision, and that he believed Byrd's death was an apparent suicide.
"At present there is no evidence a homicide was committed, and I'm OK with the findings," he told the Los Angeles Times. He expressed his condolences to the Byrd family.
The body of Byrd, 54, was found March 19 hanging from a tree near his home in Port Gibson. The death touched off fears of a possible hate crime in an area where race relations had been a problem in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Byrd's body was found with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck with no other visible signs of distress on the body, according to Lucas. The man's hands and feet were not bound, his mouth was not gagged, there were no other outward signs of injuries.
Lucas said that no note was found on the body and authorities have not heard of any threats against the man, who was convicted of murder in 1980. Byrd was paroled in 2006.
Byrd, a riverboat employee, was last seen around March 2 when he and a family member visited a local casino. Lucas said Byrd returned home with someone else, whom the sheriff identified as a friend.
The discovery of the body stunned the small rural town of Port Gibson, southwest of Jackson.
The Claiborne County Sheriff's Department and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks located the body in the woods near Roddy Road.
The FBI led the investigation into a possible hate crime.
UPDATE
11:46 a.m.: This article has been updated with comments from Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas.
This article was originally published at 11:33 a.m.
