Cory Zukatis was a 35-year-old man from Brandon, Mississippi, who was found dead on September 15, 2025, hanging from a tree in a wooded area off Washington Street near the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg. He had been experiencing homelessness and living in the encampment where his body was found. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide on October 2, 2025.1WLBT. Cause of Death of Brandon Man Found Hanging From Tree Revealed His case drew national attention because a Black college student, Demartravion “Trey” Reed, had been found hanging from a tree hours earlier the same day at Delta State University.
What Happened Near the Ameristar Casino
The Vicksburg Police Department received a call on the afternoon of Monday, September 15, 2025, about a man hanging in a wooded area off the 4100 block of Washington Street. Officers arrived at about 1:30 p.m. and found Zukatis deceased.2Vicksburg Post. Vicksburg Police Confirm Hanging Death Not Related to Delta State Incident He was identified as a white male resident of Brandon who had been living in the wooded area near the casino.3WLBT. Man Found Hanging in Vicksburg Wooded Area
Vicksburg Police Chief Larry Burns called the matter a “death investigation” and said details were limited. Warren County Coroner Doug L. Huskey would not speculate on suicide or foul play before an autopsy, but told reporters Zukatis had been “on drugs” at the time of his death, a detail he said Zukatis’s mother confirmed.4WLBT. What We Know About Hanging Deaths of Two Men in Mississippi His remains were sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab.
Who Cory Zukatis Was
Most of what is publicly known about Zukatis’s life comes from Jimmy Dawson of the River City Rescue Mission in Vicksburg. Dawson told the Mississippi Free Press that Zukatis was a father who lived in an encampment near the casino, an area frequented by people experiencing homelessness and substance use. He had nursed a dog back to health after it was struck by a vehicle in front of the mission, and the two were inseparable.
Dawson said Zukatis had been invited to stay at the mission’s shelter but refused because he would not give up the dog. When authorities eventually called animal control to remove the animal, Dawson said, the loss broke him. “When they called the pound on that dog, it just knocked his spirit,” Dawson said. “When they took that dog, they took everything from him.”5Mississippi Free Press. Homeless Man Found Hanging From Tree in Vicksburg Raising Fears After Earlier DSU Hanging A Vicksburg Post remembrance described him as someone who lived “outside the norms and structures of society” and noted that friends shared memories of him after his death.6Vicksburg Post. Zukatis
The Autopsy Ruling
On October 2, 2025, the Mississippi State Medical Examiner officially ruled the death a suicide.1WLBT. Cause of Death of Brandon Man Found Hanging From Tree Revealed No evidence of foul play was reported.7Action News 5. Cause of Death Revealed for Brandon Man Found Hanging From Tree Unlike the parallel case of Trey Reed, the suicide ruling in Zukatis’s case did not generate a sustained family challenge or legal dispute, and his story faded from the headlines after the ruling.
Why the Case Drew National Attention
The reason the Zukatis case became national news was timing. Hours before his body was found, the body of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, had been found hanging from a tree on campus at about 7:05 a.m.8Mississippi Free Press. Delta State University Student’s Body Found Hanging in Tree, No Foul Play Suspected Two men found hanging from trees in Mississippi on the same day evoked the state’s history of lynching, and the pairing spread rapidly on social media.
Viral posts incorrectly identified both men as Black and treated the deaths as linked acts of racial violence. Vicksburg police pushed back quickly. Chief Burns and other officials repeatedly stated Zukatis was a white man experiencing homelessness and that no evidence connected his death to Reed’s.2Vicksburg Post. Vicksburg Police Confirm Hanging Death Not Related to Delta State Incident
Civil Rights Response and Historical Backdrop
Even with official statements separating the two cases, major civil rights organizations called for scrutiny. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a statement on September 17, 2025, calling for thorough investigations of both deaths. SPLC Interim President Bryan Fair said the imagery “immediately evokes the collective consciousness of those who are deeply aware of Mississippi’s troubled past.”9Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC Urges Thorough Investigations Into Two Hanging Deaths in Mississippi The NAACP characterized Reed’s death as a lynching on social media, U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson called on the FBI to open a federal investigation into Reed’s death, and the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus said it was “closely watching developments.”10Clarion Ledger. Investigations Ongoing Into Deaths of Mississippi Men Found Dead Hanging
The alarm was tied to the state’s record. Mississippi has an extensive history of racial lynchings, and Black men found hanging from trees have repeatedly prompted suspicion and federal review. A Marshall Project investigation published in November 2025 reported that Reed was one of at least nine Black men found hanging from trees in Mississippi since 2000, all of whose deaths were ruled suicides.11The Marshall Project. Delta State University Mississippi Hanging Mississippi’s public safety commissioner, Sean Tindell, sought to counter the lynching speculation by stating the state had not had “a documented case of a lynching in decades.”12NPR. Hanging Death of a Student in Mississippi Is Officially Ruled a Suicide Zukatis’s case differed in nearly every particular from that history, but the date and setting pulled it into the same public conversation.