Black’s Body Found Hanging From Tree--Second in 7 Months
The body of a black woman was found this morning hanging from a tree near a bank parking lot about 10 miles from where the body of a black man was found hanging last November.
Contra Costa County sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Wells said trash collectors near Lloyd’s Bank of California parking lot found the woman’s body at about 7:30 a.m.
He said there was no indication of whether the woman took her own life or was murdered.
“The only thing we know, at this point, is that a black female was found hanging from a tree by some garbage men this morning while they were doing their rounds. At this time, we are conducting an investigation,” Wells said.
The hanging was similar to the Nov. 2, 1985, death of Timothy Lee of Berkeley, who was found hanging at the Concord BART station in a controversial case ruled a suicide by police.
Lee’s hanging enraged civil rights activists in the east San Francisco Bay Area. Members of Lee’s family and the NAACP challenged the police conclusion and conducted a separate investigation.
They noted there had been a racial attack on two black men by men wearing white robes a few hours before Lee died and just a few miles away. The men involved in that apparently unrelated incident were arrested and convicted.
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