November 27, 2023
Jackson, MS Police Allegedly Neglected To Tell Marrio Moore’s Family That He Had Been Dead Since February
Mississippi's Jackson Police Department allegedly failed to notify families of at least 24 victims of homicides including the family of Marrio Moore.
Similar to BLACK ENTERPRISE’S previous reporting on the family of Dexter Wade’s fight for justice after the Jackson Police Department buried him in a pauper’s grave and failed to alert the family for months, the same has happened to another family in Jackson. According to NBC News, Marrio Moore, a 40-year-old man, was beaten to death on Feb. 2, buried in a pauper’s grave in July, and Jackson authorities did not notify the family until Oct. 12.
In fact, the family did not find out about Moore’s death until an article revealing that the Jackson Police Department had failed to notify families of at least 24 victims of homicides made its way to Marquita Moore, Marrio’s sister, through a text message sent by her aunt. At the time, Moore told NBC News she was distraught, saying, “Lord, this is my brother,” Moore said out loud as she was crying. “Someone done killed my brother.”
Moore immediately put on outside clothes, as she had been in her pajamas since it was past 8 pm, and made her way to the downtown headquarters of the Jackson Police Department in search of answers to what happened to her brother. When she got there, an officer informed her that no one was available, and over the next few days, heartbreaking information was slowly released to the family, according to the outlet.
Marrio had allegedly been beaten to death, wrapped in a tarp, and laid out on the street. For months after that, his body was at the Hinds County morgue, unclaimed by any family members. Finally, on July 14, incarcerated people at the Hinds County penal farm buried him in a pauper’s field. Mary Moore Glenn, Marrio’s mother, still has not accepted his death or what they did with his body without her knowledge.
Glenn told NBC News, “What are you hiding?” Glenn said. “Why can’t you just come and just tell somebody that their child is gone?”
According to NBC News, Moore and Wade were both buried in the same location on the same day. However, the city and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba have not answered detailed questions, instead blaming the outcomes on a communication failure and expressed regret that the families are dealing with this.
NBC News obtained the conversations the family had with Hinds County officials as well as documents about the case, which paint a picture of a police department not doing enough to contact relatives about their deceased family members.
Marrio was described by his family as always on the move, saying that it wasn’t uncommon for him to go months without reaching out or talking to them. His sister, Marcedes Onchukwu, describes it as a defense mechanism, saying, “If you tried to get too close to him, he knew what he was doing and he knew somebody was going to tell him, ‘You need to do this or do that.’ So he stayed away for that reason,” Onuchukwu said. “Because he basically didn’t want nobody, I guess, shaming him because of his choices.”
Eventually, when the family got ready to have Marrio’s funeral, they couldn’t have a service with a body in a casket because of the way his body had deteriorated. The family held a memorial service on Oct. 20 at Nu Vision Worship Center in Jackson, and afterward, Marrio’s mother was still trying to find peace and failing to, telling NBC News, “It really didn’t do anything,” Glenn said.
“Because he was just a picture. It wasn’t the person. The last time I’m going to see him is that picture. I’m not going to see him no more.” Glenn ended her thoughts, saying, “It hurts bad that he’s gone. But nobody thought that I was important enough to let me know about my child. Nobody thought that my family was important enough.”
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