Dexter Wade’s Family Faces A Last Humiliation When He Is Unearthed Without Their Presence

Dexter Wade Family Faces A Last Humiliation When He Is Unearthed Without Their Presence. Monday was intended to be the day Bettersten Wade finally found some peace. Wade, a mother of 37, was struck and killed by a police car in Jackson, Mississippi, in March. Her son, Dexter Wade, was buried in a pauper’s field at the county penal farm without her knowledge.

Dexter Wade Family Faces A Last Humiliation When He Is Unearthed Without Their Presence. Wade and her lawyers had arranged with Hinds County officials to exhume his remains, but when Wade arrived at the penal farm at the appointed time, her son’s remains had already been dug up, put in a body bag, and placed in the back of a Chevy Suburban.

County officials said a public works crew had turned up earlier in the morning and removed the remains before anyone else arrived.

Wade felt like she didn’t exist, as she had no rights or say. The case sparked public outrage when media reported about it last month. Civil rights lawyers Ben Crump and Dennis Sweet took on her case, helping her arrange for the exhumation, an independent autopsy, and a funeral.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has expressed regret about the city’s handling of Dexter Wade’s death, blaming a miscommunication and saying there was no malicious intent. The Jackson Police Department hasn’t responded to questions about the case.

Monday’s exhumation required approval from the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, which it granted Nov. 6. The next day, the board’s attorney, Tony Gaylor, sent a letter to Sweet saying the exhumation would take place at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones, whose office runs the penal farm, said a crew from the Public Works Department, responsible for digging graves and maintaining the pauper’s field, showed up earlier in the morning and, with help from people detained in the county’s jail, exhumed the body.

After the exhumation, the dirt on Dexter Wade’s former grave, marked only by the number 672, was packed down and smoothed over.

David Archie, a member of the county Board of Supervisors, said he asked the county Public Works Department for an explanation and was told there had been a “miscommunication” about when it was expected to exhume the body. The Public Works Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crump said that the early exhumation made it impossible to know the condition in which Dexter Wade’s remains were buried. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart told him that the unembalmed remains had been placed in a bag and then in a box, which was “left behind when it was exhumed.” Crump thinks the exhumation, out of sight of the public, is another indication that authorities aren’t being transparent about Dexter Wade’s death and the aftermath.

The transfer of Dexter Wade’s remains didn’t occur at the pauper’s field but up the road, beside the penal farm’s horse stable. A pastor said a prayer to give Bettersten Wade and her family the strength to make it through their ordeal.

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