Man found dead with rope around neck in Vance County, sheriff’s office says

HENDERSON, N.C. (WNCN) — A 21-year-old has died and many questions remain after he was found near the base of a tree in Henderson on Wednesday.

That morning, at 10:08 a.m., deputies with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office were called to 285 Vanco Mill Road. On arrival, deputies found the man “in a seated position with a rope wrapped around his neck and the other end of the rope attached to a tree,” according to a press release sent out on Friday.

That man has been positively identified as Javion Magee from Aurora, IL.

The area where Magee was found was “outside of a fenced-in area,” the sheriff’s office said. The locations is near a tractor repair business and a Baptist church near the intersection of Vanco Mill and Martin Creek roads.

Since being discovered, Magee has been transported to the North Carolina Chief Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to be performed. At this time, authorities have not given a cause of his death.

Civil rights attorneys push for answers

Magee’s family has enlisted the help of national civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Lee Merritt as well as NC attorney Jason Keith to call for answers.

In a press release, a family spokesperson said “authorities told them that they couldn’t view the body and a video posted by a family member on social media went viral overnight.”

“As of today, the authorities haven’t shown us anything proving that this young man with no history of mental illness took his own life,” said Daniels. “How can the police expect us to take their word for it when they won’t even let this family view the body?”

Civil rights leader Bishop William Barber II has also spoken about about the death investigation.

He said, “We must have truth and transparency in this matter. Hanging is not a form of death that can be easily dismissed, particularly here in the South where it has been used as a weapon of terror against Black families for generations. I join attorneys Daniels and Merritt as they seek truth and justice for Javion McGee and his family.”

In a release from the attorneys, they liken Magee’s death to that of Emmett Till. They said it “bears a disturbing similarity to the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Also from Chicago, Till was lynched while visiting family near Money, Mississippi.”

The circumstances of Magee’s death remain under investigation and there is no determined cause of death. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 252-738-2200.

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