Questions continue to mount after a pauper’s grave behind a Jackson, Mississippi, jail in Hinds County made national headlines last October. It is believed that 215 individuals have been buried at the pauper’s field since 2016. The gravesites are marked by a metal tag bearing a three-digit number. Reports indicate investigations to identify all the deceased are still ongoing.

The story of the grave site broke after a Jackson Mississippi mother, Bettersten Wade, reported her son, 37-year-old Dexter Wade, missing. Wade left his home on March 5th, 2023, and when he did not return, Bettersten filed a missing persons report with Jackson Police on March 14th.

It would be nearly six months later that authorities would alert her about her son's whereabouts; he had been buried behind the Jackson Jail.

Police revealed that an hour after leaving his home on March 5th, Dexter was killed by a Jackson police car while he was crossing a nearby interstate highway. Despite Dexter's wallet being found in his front pocket including an ID card, an insurance card, and other identifying information, his family was not alerted about his death. Instead, Dexter's body was sent to the county morgue where it sat unclaimed for months before he was buried.

As the months passed, Ms. Wade says she contacted and kept in touch with local authorities and investigators, sharing information about her son, including an image of him. Despite her efforts, officers never alerted her about her son’s passing or where he was taken.

Melissa Faith Payne, the spokesperson for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, has since Shared a public statement detailing that the police department did not intentionally mean to harm Dexter or his family. “There was miscommunication but there was no malicious intent anywhere in this whole situation,” Payne said.

For Wade and her family, the response from the Mayor’s office is not enough. She is now represented by prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. Crump shares, "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." Crump continues, “There is no excuse, not even incompetence, for not notifying a next of kin of an identified man's death."

Two other families, both represented by Crump, have also come forward with claims that their loved ones were buried at the same cemetery without their next of kin ever being notified until months later. Thirty-nine-year-old Jonathan Hankins was reported missing by his mother, and after a year and seven months, she was notified that he had been buried at the pauper’s field cemetery.

Hankins’ mother shared with local outlet KKTV, “No one has called me or tried to contact me. Nothing — I have heard nothing, and that makes it worse. When I reported him missing in June, he was already dead. He should’ve been in the system as deceased when I reported him missing in June. Somebody ain’t doing their job. A lot of people aren’t doing their job.” The family of 40-year-old Mario Moore has also shared similar events after Moore died and was buried but the family was never alerted.

Payne maintained in a statement shared by the Mayor's office that "It is not a secret burial ground." She adds, "In those graves are the bodies of those who went unclaimed by family when they died. These persons are either homeless people, inmates from local jails who died but relatives never claimed their bodies, unidentified persons who officials were never able to connect with family, or even persons who died whose families couldn't afford a funeral.”

Crump and the families maintain that the police department failed in its duty to the public. When asked about what his legal team was seeking as they pursue legal action, Crump said they were demanding that the Federal Department of Justice investigate the gravesite and find out who was buried there and why. This would allow the families of the deceased to receive notification if needed and give them the opportunity to have a proper burial for their loved ones.