JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-council Dennis Sweet will represent the family of Marrio Moore.

Crump said the 40-year-old Jackson man was beaten to death and buried in the same pauper’s field as Dexter Wade without his family’s knowledge. Moore’s family said they did not learn about his death until eight months after he had been killed.

The attorney said Moore’s body was wrapped in a tarp and left on a Hinds County street on February 2, 2023. His cause of death was determined to be a homicide cause by blunt force trauma to the head.

Crump said Moore’s body was kept in the Hinds County morgue until July 14 when inmates buried him in a pauper’s field.

Moore’s sister, Marquita Moore, said she did not know about his death until she saw his name listed in an article, published in early October, with the names of homicide victims undisclosed by the Jackson Police Department (JPD) this year.

His relatives said they did not receive any information regarding his death. Crump said they have not been notified of where in the pauper’s field Moore is buried.

“It is inhumane to leave a family without answers and deprive them of the ability to give their loved one a proper burial. Jackson authorities instead chose to bury these men in a pauper’s field with only a three-digit number to memorialize them. Shame on the Jackson Police Department for their inaction, their apathy, and their cruelty,” said Crump.