Lennon Lacy CONTINUES
difficulty. The swing set from which
he was hanging is one of eight such
sets standing in a line in the middle
of a rectangle of 13 mobile homes.
The spot is desolate and vulnerable,
overlooked as it is by so many trailer
homes, like a sports field surrounded
by grandstands.
“If my brother
wanted to take his
own life, I can’t
understand why he
would do it in such an
exposed place. This
feels more like he was
put here as a public
display – a taunting
almost,” Pierre Lacy
said.
Lacy was found
wearing a pair of
size 10 1/2 white
sneakers, with the
laces removed, which
no one in his family
recognized. A few
days before he died,
he had bought himself
a new pair of Jordan’s
for the start of school
year. They were grey
with neon green soles, size 12, and
have been missing ever since.
to know why detectives have yet to
speak to him.
The family also wonders why the
former husband of Michelle Bramhill
and the father of her children,
whom she left in February before
relocating to Bladenboro, has yet to
be interviewed by detectives. There
is no evidence to implicate him in the
circumstances surrounding Lacy’s
death, but the family would still like
Some clues about the swing set are
raising questions about whether
the death was in fact a suicide.
For instance, the beam was seven
and a half feet off the ground, and
there was nothing Lacey could have
stood on. According to the NAACP
investigation, the state medical
examiner was never provided a
photograph of the
swing set where
Lacey was found
hanging.
Allen Rogers,
a Fayetteville
lawyer with 20
years’ experience
in criminal cases
who is representing
the Lacy family,
said there were too
many questions
still unanswered.
“I don’t believe
that a thorough
investigation
has been done,
and within that
investigation, the
evidence the police
has compiled is not
www.spectacularmag.com | December 2014 | SPECTACULAR MAGAZINE
sufficient to rule out foul play. The
concern is that there’s been a rush to
judgment – a desire quickly to settle
any issue over the cause of death,” he
said.
Rogers conceded that it was hard for
any family to accept a suicide in its
midst, and that it would be natural
in those circumstances to search for
alternative explanations, to clutch
at straws. But he said that in this
case the clutching at straws appeared
to have been on the part of “elected
officials who can’t deal with the
realities of race. Given the sensitivity
of the issues here, it’s much easier
to put this in a box marked ‘suicide’
than ask the tough questions. I’m
afraid that politics have held back the
investigation.”
A few hours after Lacy’s body was
discovered, the coach of the West
Bladen Knights called the team
together to break to them the
tragic news. He asked them what
they wanted to do. They voted
unanimously to play on, dedicating
the game to their lost brother, Lennon
Lacy. They won, 57-22.
(Reprint permission granted
by the Guardian) ((