A Mississippi attorney who posted photos of a body hanging from a tree without talking to the deceased's family or investigators has apologized and removed the photos. The death has since been ruled a suicide.

Thursday morning, Carlos Moore posted a public apology on his Facebook page and deleted the photos, saying, in part, "I regretfully shared it with you publicly without first asking the next of kin."

In a Facebook post that was shared over 2,500 times, Moore posted three photos of a deceased man, named him and used a hashtag with the victim's name, calling for "Justice." Moore, who is also a municipal court judge in Clarksdale, tagged his law firm in the post, despite not representing the deceased man's family.

Moore shared the photos on Twitter, as well.

In his post Thursday, Moore said, in part, "In hind sight that was not the right thing to do and I apologize to the family for being insensitive even though I only wanted to help avoid the issue being swept under the rug."

When reached Thursday morning, Moore said he hasn't tried to call the deceased's family to personally apologize, relying instead on the Facebook apology.

"The same mechanism which I posted (the apology) is the same mechanism which I reached out to them," he said.

Authorities have said repeatedly they "found no evidence indicative of a homicide."

As a press conference Thursday afternoon, officials with the Columbus Police Department said they consulted with the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and "investigators still find no evidence of a homicide."

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant then issued a press release saying, "after a full investigation, interviews, autopsy and discussion with (the) Mississippi State Medical Examiner, the death has been ruled suicide by ligature hanging."

Wednesday morning, Moore admitted to the Clarion Ledger that he posted the photos without contacting the family of the man or authorities who are investigating the death. He stood by his post then, calling it a "deliberate decision" and said he would only take the photos down if contacted by a "blood relative" of the deceased.

Mental heath resources

State Department of Mental Health 24-hour Helpline: 1-877-210-8513

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

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Contact Sarah Fowler at 601-961-7303 or sfowler@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.