An official autopsy report has found that the black teenager whose death in a small town in North Carolina has sparked racial tensions and prompted complaints that police have mishandled the investigation died from suffocation as a result of hanging.



The autopsy on Lennon Lacy, conducted under the auspices of chief medical examiner, Deborah Radisch, concludes that “the cause of death in this case was due to asphyxia secondary to hanging”. It notes that Lacy’s neck had a dark abrasion encircling it along with a buckle mark under the right ear that were consistent with the noose of blue and black belts tied to a swing set from which he was found hanging on 29 August.

Despite the clearly stated cause of death, the autopsy report does not give any clues as to how the teenager came to be hanging, and as such is unlikely to calm the mood in Bladenboro, a tiny town of just 1,700 in the south of the state. Lacy’s family has refused to accept that the teenager took his own life, and has accused the police of conducting a hasty investigation in a rush to settle the case as a suicide.



Pierre Lacy, Lennon’s brother, told the Guardian that the report “doesn’t answer why my brother was found hanging. Or tell us, if this was a suicide, how was he able to execute this alone.”

Lacy, 17, was found hanging from the swing set in an exposed location in the middle of a mobile home park just hours before he was due to play a big game for his high school football team, the West Bladen Knights. The previous day he had attended the funeral of his great uncle with whom he was close.

The autopsy report emphasises that point, stating prominently under its “summary and interpretation” section that “it was reported that [Lacy] had been depressed over the recent death of his uncle”. Lacy’s family said they were puzzled and angered by the reference to a reported comment that had no relevance to the physical and forensic analysis involved in the postmortem.

“An autopsy cannot determine whether a person was depressed – you can’t tell that from physical signs, so why was it put in the report?” said Pierre Lacy. “That’s a red flag to me – it’s not factual.”

Al McSurely, a lawyer working with the North Carolina branch of the NAACP that has been invited by the Lacy family to look into the teenager’s death, said that the reference to depression suggested that the autopsy had been influenced from the start by a presumption of suicide. “In fact, all our evidence suggests that Lennon was relieved that his great uncle had died after a long and painful illness, and that he was looking forward to his football game that night.”

The Guardian contacted the Bladenboro police department for a response to the autopsy but did not immediately hear back. The department has previously indicated that it has found no evidence of foul play or a staged hanging of the body.

Lacy’s death has been a mystery to his family and friends because he never had any history of mental illness or depression, and was extremely focused on the football game scheduled for a few hours after he was found hanging. He was also in a relationship with an older white woman who lived across the street.

The family said that it was now considering exhuming the body in order to carry out its own independent autopsy. The NAACP has also asked for a meeting with the chief medical examiner to discuss her findings.

Other aspects of the autopsy report have also raised questions for the family. It lists the clothes in which he was found, including black socks, a pair of navy blue nylon sports pants, a navy blue nylon short-sleeve shirt, and multi-coloured boxer shorts.

But it gives no mention of any shoes. The Lacy family was told by investigators that his body was found with a pair of white sneakers without shoelaces which relatives did not recognise, while the new pair of Jordan basketball shoes he bought shortly before his death have gone missing.

Allen Rogers, a lawyer who is representing the Lacy family, was also surprised to find no discussion of a bump that was seen on Lennon’s right forehead by relatives as well as by the funeral director who handled his body. “The report makes no reference at all to the contusion that was clearly seen by several people,” he said.

The autopsy report only states under the subheading titled “Skin” that “no scalp lacerations or contusions are present”. It also recorded that many red ants were found on the body and clothing, suggesting the insects had probably been responsible for multiple scratches on the body’s face, upper chest, arms and scrotum.

A final area of concern was that no swabs appear to have been taken that could be put through DNA testing to determine whether anybody else’s biological traces were present. The report notes that Lacy’s hands had not been bagged – a routine process used in investigations into suspicious deaths whereby DNA evidence is protected from contamination by wrapping the hands in paper bags.

A separate toxicology report found no traces of alcohol or drugs in Lacy’s blood.