Investigators are trying to find out why a man who had been questioned as part of a homicide inquiry involving the death of a woman ended up dead himself, hanging from a tree in a garden in rural Georgia.
Preliminary autopsy results are expected on Tuesday after 43-year-old Roosevelt Champion was found dead on Monday morning, suspended from a tree not far from his home in Greensboro, about 75 miles east of Atlanta, according to local reports.
Champion was African American, and investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) have said they will probe all aspects of the death to try to find out what happened.
An initial assessment by the GBI found no foul play in Champion’s hanging and he was not bound or showing any visible injuries, the local NBC TV affiliate reported.
“There’s nothing to suggest any foul play at this time,” said GBI special agent Joe Wooten. “That’s going to be up to the autopsy to determine that but no, nothing overt. There’s nothing that showed any type of immediate struggle or anything of that nature,” he added.
“I understand that there is a lot of concern” in the community because the victim was a black man who was hanged in the deep south, Wooten told NBC news. “Because of that, we’re going to be as transparent as we can be.”
Wooten said there was no initial indication of any gunshots or other wounds to Champion’s body, but that investigators would await the post-mortem results.
The body was found hanging by orange nylon ratchet straps by a passer-by, who called the authorities.
“Mr Champion’s feet were touching the ground, his knees were slightly buckled,” Wooten said.
Wooten confirmed that Champion was questioned during the recent investigation into the death of a Greensboro woman, 55-year-old Carol Lewis, who was found dead earlier in May.
But he emphasized that Champion was not charged in that case, declining to elaborate beyond saying there was nothing to tie the two deaths at this point.
“I’m angry because I don’t have answers. He wouldn’t have harmed himself, I doubt it,” said Miranda Wright, one of Champion’s sisters.
Champion had spent spells behind bars in Georgia for a number of offenses ranging from possession of cocaine to public indecency and driving under the influence, according to local reports.
