A grieving mother has opened up about her heartbreak upon learning that her son was run over by a police officer and buried in a common grave — after she spent seven agonizing months searching for him.
Thirty-seven-year-old Dexter Wade was killed less than an hour after he left his mother’s home in Jackson, Mississippi on 5 March, NBC reports. As he walked across Interstate 55, Wade was fatally struck by an off-duty corporal driving a police SUV.
Bettersten Wade reported her son missing a week after she last saw him, but she was only made aware of his tragic fate 172 days later. Four days after he died, Wade was identified by the Hinds County coroner’s office and, according to an incident report obtained by NBC, information about his next of kin was passed down to the Jackson Police Department.
Ms Bettersten said she was not delivered the news and after Wade’s body went unclaimed for three months, he was buried in a common grave for unclaimed bodies at the Hinds County penal farm.
“They had me looking for him all that time, and they knew who he was,” Ms Bettersten told NBC.
At the time of his death, Wade had PCP and methamphetamine in his system. The officer involved was not given field sobriety tests and Wade’s death was ruled accidental, NBC reported.
Wade was identified thanks to his fingerprints, which were on his criminal file. He had convictions for attempted auto theft and armed robbery, according to records obtained by NBC, and served time in prison.
Following his release in 2017, Wade was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. However, he had recently spent time recovering from drug use, helping his community and being present for his daughters, Ms Bettersten said.
“He didn’t seem like he was in a bad place,” she told NBC. “But I don’t know what happened that particular day.”
Ms Bettersten said she initially did not want to report her son missing because of previous negative experiences with law enforcement. Her brother was killed in 2019 after he was slammed to the ground by a police officer, who was later convicted of manslaughter and is in the process of appealing.
She finally filed a report with the Jackson Police Department after Wade’s teen daughters kept calling asking her for her father. Ms Bettersten told NBC that she sent pictures to at least two investigators, and gave them her contact information.
An investigator with the Hinds County coroner’s office wrote in an incident report that he had called a number linked to Wade’s and left a voicemail. Ms Bettersten said that although the number on file matches hers, she didn’t receive the call, or a voicemail.
The phone number and an address were sent to the Jackson Police Department, which had already received the missing persons reports and several follow-up calls from Ms Bettersten, but it remains unclear why she was not notified.
In the seven months that she anxiously waited for updates, Ms Bettersten led searches, posted on social media and continued pleading with police to prioritize Wade’s case.
However, an investigator who was close to retirement told her for months that there were no leads. On 24 August, a new investigator who had taken over the case just weeks before told Bettersten that an officer would come speak with her in person.
She was then informed about the events that led to her son’s death and what had followed after.
“The hardest thing I ever had to do is tell my girls that their dad is never coming back,” Ms Bettersten told NBC. “I just want someone to answer for what happened. I want to know what really happened.”
Ms Bettersten said she still has many questions about the circumstances surrounding her son’s death, including how he arrived near the highwway where he was killed less than an hour before he left her home.
The grieving mother is now trying to raise money to exhume her son’s body and lay him to rest at a new grave.
