Mississippi Cops Buried a Missing Man. His Family Only Found Out When NBC News Revealed It.

An NBC investigation revealed how Jackson, Mississippi, police keep burying people in pauper's graves after failing to inform their families about their deaths.

Jonathan David Hankins died in a Jackson, Mississippi hotel room last May. Even though police were quickly able to identify the body of the 39-year-old, they failed to inform his family—even after his mother reported him missing. 

Eventually, Jonathan was buried in a pauper's grave on the grounds of a nearby penal farm. His family didn't know what happened to him until an NBC investigation revealed the misconduct.

"It feels like they threw him away like trash," Jeannie Jones, Jonathan's aunt, told NBC. "No caring. No feeling."

According to Gretchen Hankins, Jonathan's mother, he left her Florence, Mississippi, home on Friday, May 20, 2022, telling her he was planning on meeting some friends and promising to return for Sunday dinner.

Gretchen told NBC that she was used to Jonathan, who was addicted to meth, leaving for days at a time. But when he didn't come back that weekend, she became alarmed. After calling nearby jails and hospitals in search of her son, she reported him missing to local police in July.

While no news immediately came, Gretchen says she regularly contacted the Rankin County Sheriff's Office for over a year, hoping for news about her son, only to be continually told there was no new information. 

However, Jonathan had in fact been found dead in a Jackson, Mississippi, hotel room just three days after he left home—before his mother even reported him missing. Law enforcement swiftly identified his body. But despite being present at the scene, neither the Hinds County coroner's office nor the Jackson Police Department informed Jonathan's family. In September, the county had him buried at a Jackson area penal farm.

"That's ridiculous," Gretchen told NBC. "Going that dang long and not calling people, that's just inhumane. It's wrong. It's just wrong."

This isn't the first time Jackson, Mississippi, police have buried someone in a pauper's grave after failing to inform their family of their death. In March, 37-year-old Dexter Wade was struck by a police cruiser just hours after leaving his mother's house. Law enforcement failed to inform his family for seven months—allowing his body to go unclaimed and eventually burying him in a penal farm. 

Following Wade's death, NBC launched an investigation into other individuals buried on the same penal farm, which is how they found Jonathan Hankins—and were finally able to notify his family about his death.

"What if there wasn't a Dexter Wade?" Brooks Davis, who runs the website MissingSippi, told NBC. "What if his mama didn't figure out what she figured out and exposed these problems? How much longer would this family be going through this? Would they have ever found out?"