Mississippi Mother Who Spent 7 Months Searching for Missing Son Learns He Was Fatally Run Over by Police and Buried in a Common Grave Without Her Knowledge

A Black household is mourning their son, who was run over by a police officer who then lined up his demise.

Dexter Wade disappeared after leaving his mom’s residence in Jackson, Mississippi, on March fifth. Wade and his mom, Bettersten, argued that evening. So when he left, she didn’t instantly imagine he was in peril. Nonetheless, after a number of days of no contact, she contacted regulation enforcement. Wade’s case was mishandled from the beginning, with the unique investigator misspelling his final identify on the lacking individual’s report. As she spent the previous seven months looking for her baby, authorities knew he was useless all alongside.

Shortly after Wade left his residence, he was hit by an officer-driven car whereas strolling throughout Interstate 55. Investigators shortly dominated Wade’s demise an accident. Nonetheless, as soon as he was recognized and get in touch with particulars for his mom had been situated, the Hinds County Coroner’s Workplace didn’t notify the household. As a substitute, they handed Wade’s data to the Jackson Police Division to make a demise notification, which they by no means did. Because of this, Wade’s physique was saved within the morgue and buried in a numbered grave on the Hinds County jail’s penal farm. Bettersten solely discovered this data in early October.

“They had me looking for him all that time, and they knew who he was,” Bettersten said.

Betterstein and her household had already been reluctant to name police about her son given the 2019 demise of her brother, who died after a Jackson officer slammed him onto the bottom. That, mixed with the truth that Wade suffered from bipolar dysfunction and schizophrenia, solely made his family members extra apprehensive about getting the police concerned. Now, together with his stays situated, Betterstein is elevating cash to have Wade’s stays exhumed and buried in a correct ceremony.

The officer who hit Wade has not been recognized publicly.