Coroner Calls Black Woman’s Hanging Death a Suicide

A black woman discovered hanging from an olive tree Tuesday in a bank parking lot in Lafayette apparently killed herself, according to the Contra Costa County coroner’s office.

The death of 35-year-old Jacquelyn Peters of Concord was due to strangulation from hanging, with no other marks on the body, Deputy Coroner Rick Johnson said Wednesday.

Johnson said an autopsy had been conducted and that there was no reason “at this time” to believe the death was other than suicide.

An apparent suicide note and a will were found with the body, according to a lawyer who said he represented the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the victim’s family.

Death ‘Suspicious’

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department has classified the death as “suspicious” until an investigation is completed, and the director of the NAACP’s West Coast region called for a full investigation by the state attorney general and the FBI.

In a telephone interview, John Burris, an Oakland attorney who said he was representing the victim’s family, said Peters’ death “might very well be a suicide.”

The attorney said he saw a “a last will and testament” that gave instructions about the distribution of her property. The will was not signed or dated, he said.

Burris said Peters’ husband “indicated to me that she was not suicidal, but was a little bit despondent and depressed.” Burris also said that a note apparently in her handwriting was found in her purse. The note “set forth her mental state, said she was upset and sorry for what she was about to do,” Burris said.

“We’re not going to comment on that note as of now,” said Sgt. Surry Poole of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department.

Peters had been unemployed but was actively looking for work. The woman had worked for a month last summer at the Contra Costa Times newspaper as a typist in the advertising department. The newspaper reported Wednesday that when she quit, she left behind a note saying, “Jesus is beckoning.”

‘No Knowledge of Threats’

Poole said investigators have “no knowledge of any threats” against Peters and added that he “would not comment on her mental state.” The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of the week.

Peters’ death raised questions among black leaders who noted Wednesday that her death was similar to that of Timothy Lee, a black Berkeley man who was a hanging victim in Contra Costa County last November. Police classified his death as a suicide, although civil rights activists and Lee’s family disputed the claim.