Cold Cases in Mississippi
ColdCaseIndex documents 9 cases in Mississippi, dated 1955 to 2024. 6 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Emmett Till (1955) and the most recent is Dau Mabil (2024).
- Unsolved 6 (67%)
- Solved or convicted 2 (22%)
- Closed without conviction 1 (11%)
Homicide clearance in Mississippi, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Mississippi cases
Dau Mabil
Dau Mabil, a 33-year-old Sudanese refugee and one of the 'Lost Boys' resettled in Jackson, Mississippi, vanished during a midday walk near his Belhaven-area home on March 25, 2024.
Jessica Chambers
Nineteen-year-old Jessica Chambers was found burning on a road in Courtland, Mississippi, her body set on fire while she was still alive. She was able to say a partial name to a first responder but died shortly after.
Myra Lewis
Two-year-old Myra Rena Lewis vanished from the front yard of her rural home near Camden, Mississippi, on March 1, 2014. Despite an Amber Alert, an FBI investigation and a $20,000 reward, she has never been found.
Leigh Marine Occhi
Thirteen-year-old Leigh Occhi vanished from her Tupelo, Mississippi home on the morning of August 27, 1992, as remnants of Hurricane Andrew moved through the area.
Alisha Heinrich (Delta Dawn)
On December 5, 1982, the body of an unidentified toddler was recovered from the Escatawpa River near the Interstate 10 bridge in Moss Point, Mississippi.
Wharlest Jackson
Wharlest Jackson, treasurer of the Natchez NAACP and a 12-year employee of the Armstrong Rubber and Tire Company, was killed on February 27, 1967, when a bomb planted under his pickup truck exploded as he drove home from work.
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner
Civil rights workers James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, were killed by Ku Klux Klan members in Neshoba County, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964. Their bodies were found 44 days later.
Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers, 37, the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, was shot in the back outside his Jackson home shortly after midnight on June 12, 1963, and died within the hour.
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted and brutally murdered near Money, Mississippi, on August 28, 1955, after allegedly whistling at a white woman. Roy Bryant and J.W.