The Mississippi Crime Lab notified the family that remains found on Feb. 23 matched Rasheem Carter's DNA, according to a statement released by attorney Ben Crump and Carter's family.
Carter visited the Taylorsville Police Department on two separate occasions leading up to his disappearance, according to Tommy Cox, chief of the Laurel Police Department, which filed the initial missing persons' case after the family came to them for help. "One thing is for certain ... this was not a natural killing. This was not a natural death. This represents a young man who was killed," Crump said last month after the release of the autopsy report by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office.The Smith County Police Department originally ruled out foul play in the case. According to Crump, officials recanted their statement.
Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston told ABC News in March that earlier evidence of the case "didn't suggest" any foul play, stressing that "nothing is being swept under the rug."