What really happened to Rasheem Carter? Family and sheriff speak on the case

Rasheem Carter

Unanswered questions surround the case of a missing Fayette man whose decomposing body was found on Nov. 2, in Taylorsville.

Rasheem Carter, 25, was reported missing in early October while staying at a Laurel hotel and working in Taylorsville.

VDN reached out to Carter’s family who provided some details about his case.

According to the family, in early October Carter went to the police department in Taylorsville to report that some men in a white truck were after him.

“He told them that someone was trying to harm him and I heard him when he said that but they told me that he never said someone was trying to harm him,” said Rasheem Carter’s mom, Tiffany Carter. “Little did they know I was on the phone when he said it. He told me on the phone personally that it was three white trucks full of white men.”

“He waited nervously in the police station, pacing back and forth, and asked the officers for a ride back to Laurel where his hotel was,” said Carter’s aunt, Felicia Kaho. Kaho says they refused because it is out of their jurisdiction and claimed that they had no room for him to stay. Laurel is 30 minutes or so from Taylorsville.

The Sheriff responds

In an exclusive interview with the Vicksburg Daily News, Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston responded by saying Rasheem Carter did not indicate he was in any danger when he came to the police department.

“To them, he never seemed to be in any distress or anything and he never mentioned anything about being in immediate danger,” Houston said. “They offered him a phone call and he said he had a phone and they even offered him a charger but the charger that was available didn’t fit his phone, so he was just trying to find a ride back to Laurel when he came in contact with police.”

Where Carter stayed that night is unclear, but he returned to Taylorsville PD the next day and, according to his family, received no assistance.

On Sunday morning, Oct. 2,  a family friend, Esha Green, informed Carter that they were coming to pick him up, which would take several hours. Once Green made it to Taylorsville, she never did find Carter.

“When I first go there I went to the Chevron and I waited there for a little while,” Green said. I went to the Piggly Wiggly and Jr. Food Mart and the Family Dollar Store and I went in and asked have they seen him a and they said no.”

Green also drove to many other places including Carter’s hotel in Laurel but she would never make contact with him.

Later, he was seen on a landowner’s camera, seeming to look around with a stick in his hand.

“It looks like he knows that someone is after him and it looks like he has a stick in his hand so I don’t know if someone was chasing him but he has bruises and a gash on the hairline,” concluded his mother, Tiffany Carter.

Conflicting information

Rasheem Carter

The family stated that two days after the family friend couldn’t find him, someone withdrew $500 from his bank card. Carter’s family doesn’t believe that it was Rasheem who withdrew that money. They also believe that he was murdered on Oct. 2.

“Some cameras where ATMs are they roll for like 30 days and I wanna say it deletes and rolls again for 30 days so they know they had a timeframe on getting the information from the footage or wherever he was,” Tiffany Carter said. “Whoever drew the money out, the Smith County Sheriff’s Department knows it’s a time frame when to check that footage. From my understanding, they have been going back and forth with Chime to get them to release the card number to see where the money was withdrawn from.”

“It took a while to get records back,” said Houston. “We didn’t learn of this information until the first week of November and we were finally able to get the full card number of the Chime Card after a subpoena or a search warrant on the Chime account.”

According to Houston, the last time that card was used was on Aug. 13. Houston also clarified that there was no proof $500 was withdrawn from the account for the month of October.

According to the family, Carter went to a store the day before he disappeared. There, he told his mother that the cashier was on the phone and said, “Yeah, he is in here,” and he quickly left the store.

“Someone must have called in the store or they were on their personal cell phones and asked if he was in the store,” Tiffany Carter said. “He told me that when I heard her say ‘yea he’s in the store’ I got out of the store.”

Houston stated he is aware of the incident involving the cashier, but the cashier “had no knowledge of that.”

An eerie warning

Carter’s mother states Rasheem messaged her the name of the person who would be responsible for his death if something was to happen to him. Due to the sensitive nature of this case and the, as yet, unproven assertions, the Vicksburg Daily News will withhold that information for now.

On Nov. 2, Carter’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Taylorsville. According to the family, he had his Super 8 Hotel key and his wallet along with his Chime Card. He also had what appeared to be a cell phone battery but not his cell phone.

“We believe it to be a cell phone battery but it had been in the woods for several weeks and we weren’t able to locate a phone,” said Houston. “It may not be a cell phone battery. It possibly could be, but it was sent to the crime lab as well.”

The body was discovered by the Smith County Sheriff’s Office in a pine tree plantation with the help of cadaver dogs from north Mississippi. Houston confirmed a cell phone charger, a vape, all of his bank cards, car keys and cash was found on the body.

No indication of foul play

As of now, according to the family, the Smith County Sheriff has stated there is no indication of foul play in Carter’s death.

The Smith County Sheriff’s Department released a statement on their social media page, which says in part, “We want to reiterate that this is an ongoing investigation. Other agencies, including MBI and FBI, have assisted as well. All details have been given solely to the mother, and if and when she wants anything additional released, or if we find anything else that the public needs to know, we will release that information at that time.”

Houston reiterated that Carter’s case is an open investigation. Houston went on to say the case has taken priority in the department.

“We’re working very closely with the Mississippi Bureau Investigation and we’ve also reached out for some resources with the FBI and we’re looking at it from every angle to find out exactly what took place,” Houston said. “We would like to keep the family in our prayers.”

Rasheem Carter leaves behind a six-year-old daughter. His remains are still in possession of the Mississippi Crime Lab awaiting an autopsy. Tiffany Carter has yet to see the remains of her son.

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JD Fogas and David Day assisted in the investigation and publication of this story.