Jackson Police Department/CNNTwo years ago, citizens of Jackson, Mississippi, were left in a state of shock after the decapitated head of a young man was left on a porch.
The head belonged to Jeremy Jerome Jackson, 30, a Jackson State University student whose burnt body was discovered in a wooded area less than a mile away from where his head was recovered.
An autopsy later determined Jeremy – who had also suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound to the leg – had still been alive when he was beheaded.
WJTVOfficers in Jackson are still searching for Jeremy’s killer, with an arrest yet to be made in this ‘shocking, brutal, bizarre’ case.
Jeremy was last seen alive on June 9, 2017, just one day before his remains were uncovered. As reported by the Clarion Ledger, he had been having his hair cut by his brother Corey Jackson and talking excitedly about a job interview for a restaurant job.
The very next day Corey would receive a devastating phone call from his other brother, asking him to look at a picture and tell him if he thought it ‘looked like Jeremy of not’.
The photograph in question was of a severed head left on the front steps of a residence. He recognised at once that he was looking at the lifeless head of the brother he had been speaking with the day previously.
Corey Jackson/FacebookTwo years on and Corey and his family are still looking for answers to his brother’s death. As reported by the Clarion Ledger, Corey stopped getting updates from JPD approximately three weeks after the discovery.
Corey told the Clarion Ledger he doesn’t believe Jeremy’s death to be an ‘isolated incident’:
I’m thinking whenever this happened to him, he was probably with the wrong person at that time. I really don’t know,
[…] It was just one slice, It wasn’t ragged. Whoever did that knew how to use a machete.
Criminal psychologist and president of Hutton Forensics, Kaitlyn Hampshire has told the Clarion Ledger the difficulty involved in this sort of killing could indicate more than one perpetrator.
Hampshire believes the way in which the head was publicly displayed ‘as a trophy’, could point towards the killer trying to give some sort of message.
Jackson Police DepartmentJackson Police spokesperson Sgt. Roderick Holmes recently said no arrests have been made, with the investigation into Jeremy’s murder still ongoing. However, persons of interest have reportedly been identified by investigators and ‘certain information is still being analysed’.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Jeremy Jerome Jackson as the investigation continues.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.