Funeral arrangements for Javion Magee will be Saturday in Maywood

Javion Magee/Image by Family

By Tonia Hill/The Tribe

The funeral arrangements for Javion Magee, the 21-year-old Chicagoland truck driver who was found dead on Sept. 11 in North Carolina, have been announced. 

Magee’s visitation will take place on Oct. 5 at Miracle Revival Cathedral in Maywood, Ill, a western suburb of Chicago. The visitation will start at 10:00 a.m., followed by the funeral service at 11:00 a.m. 

Magee was in Henderson, NC, delivering a load to a local Walmart Supercenter on Sept. 10. He was found dead the following morning. It was Magee’s first time making a delivery to Henderson, according to a police report. 

On Sept. 11, a 911 call was made at 10:08 a.m. at 285 Vanco Mill Road in Henderson. The 911 caller, the owner of T&R Tractor & Trailer Repair, told an emergency responder that they were mowing the grass and saw a man who appeared to have hung himself from a tree. 

The 911 caller added that the man looked dead and that “he still has a rope around his neck.” 

Vance County deputies and emergency responders were dispatched to the area. When deputies arrived at the scene, they saw a Black man outside of a fenced-in area at the base of a tree in a seated position with a rope wrapped around his neck and the other end attached to a tree, according to the written release. 

The man was later identified as Magee of Aurora, Illinois. He was transported to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy. The TRiiBE requested a report from the Medical Examiner’s Office, which will be released once available.

A preliminary autopsy report revealed that Magee didn’t have any defensive wounds or signs of physical or sexual assault. There was hemorrhaging around his neck. A toxicology report is pending, so the autopsy report is not complete. A cause and manner of death has not yet been determined. 

The Vance County Sheriff’s Office initially told Magee’s mother and stepfather that he died by suicide, according to Candice Matthews, a civil rights activist and state chair for the Texas Democratic Black Caucus, who is serving as spokesperson for Magee’s family. 

However, Magee’s family questions the police’s account and wants answers to lingering questions about what happened to Magee between his Sept. 10 arrival and his death the next morning. 

Magee’s family has expressed doubts about him dying by suicide. He planned to visit cousins in Houston during his time away from home. Harry Daniels, one of the family’s attorneys, said he was excited to see and spend time with them

Magee became a truck driver like his father, received his commercial driver’s license in 2024, and was employed by KLLM Transport Services.

Since the news of his passing, Magee’s story has gone viral on social media, with many expressing concern and distrust of the police narrative. For some, the circumstances of his death also draw parallels to the lynching of Black people, particularly Black men, in the South during the Jim Crow era. 

However, Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame dispelled speculations and previously told TV news that Magee’s death was not a lynching. 

During their press conference on Sept. 18 in Henderson, NC, Magee’s mother, Tiara Roberson Gates, and his father, Kori Magee, expressed their grief and concern about the circumstances of their son’s death and demanded justice and a transparent investigation. 

Magee’s parents were joined by civil rights attorneys Daniels, Lee Merritt and criminal justice attorney Jason Keith. Both Merritt and Daniels said the investigation is ongoing and that any further conclusions about hate crimes or lynchings have not yet been determined. The State Bureau of Investigation is involved in the case, Brame told ABC 11 in NC. 

The Sept. 18 press conference follows the public release of surveillance video from a local Walmart in Henderson, NC, where Magee was seen purchasing a blue rope at Walmart. 

At the time of the video’s release, Magee’s family said it didn’t prove anything. 

What we know about Magee’s movement through Henderson

Det. Labra signed a police search warrant on Sept. 13. No video evidence obtained by police shows Magee walking or riding with anyone in the truck, according to the search warrant. Investigators also viewed video surveillance from a nearby Shell Gas Station on 230 Vanco Mill Road in Henderson, NC. 

The Vance County Sheriff released a timeline of events two weeks ago, outlining Javion Magee’s movements before and during his time in Henderson, NC, up until he was found dead on Sept. 11. The timeline is based on GPS data from Magee’s truck, witness statements, the 911 call and cell phone data.

Investigators with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office also shared this timeline with Magee’s family while they were in Henderson.

The timeline can be accessed here.

Below is the timeline provided by the Vance County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 10 at 1:00 a.m., Magee left Hazelton, Pa., after picking up a load to deliver to the Walmart Distribution Center in Henderson. He arrived in Vance County at 10:04 a.m. and delivered the load to the Walmart Distribution Center in Henderson at 12:37 p.m. 

Between 5:44 p.m. and 6:22 p.m. that day, Magee makes a purchase at the local smoke shop located at 422 East Andrews Ave., where he bought tobacco products. 

He then travels to the Walmart Supercenter and purchases blue Ozark trail rope in the self-checkout lane.

Surveillance video from Walmart also shows him leaving the store and walking in the parking lot. While walking to the truck, he stopped to give money to a homeless person. Investigators interviewed the person and learned that Magee gave them $228.  

The person told police that Magee said, “I don’t know how much it is, but if I had more, I would give it to you.” 

At 6:28 p.m., Magee pulls into the Hampton Inn Hotel on Ruin Creek Road. Surveillance footage shows him walking from the back of the hotel wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts, white socks and dark-colored crocs. Magee is also wearing a black backpack. He enters the hotel alone. 

He exits because he was told there weren’t any available rooms, according to Daniels. Magee’s truck leaves the hotel parking lot and turns right onto Ruin Creek Road, according to police.

At 6:45 p.m., the truck approaches the intersection of Andrews Ave. and US 1 Highway, and at 6:50 p.m., the truck exits US 1 Highway onto Vanco Mill Road. A few minutes later, Magee pulls into the dirt lot at 285 Vanco Mill Road and the ignition is turned off. 

Surveillance footage from the area shows Magee exiting the driver’s side of the truck wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts. Magee is seen walking away from the truck alone towards the wood line on the eastern side of the dirt lot. Magee is carrying an object in his hand. Magee walks back up around a trailer and to the front gate of T&R Tractor & Truck Repair, then walks back to the wood line of the lot.

At 7:00 p.m., surveillance video shows Magee re-entering the truck, and the ignition is turned on. Magee doesn’t appear to have anything in his hand when he re-enters the truck, according to police. The truck remains still and in an idling state until 7:28 p.m., 

The truck is turned off at 7:30 p.m., and isn’t started again. Magee is seen on video walking away from the truck toward the trees alone. The video doesn’t show Magee walking back to the truck. 

A little over 12 hours later, Vance County received a 911 call stating that a male was not breathing and appeared to have died by suicide, according to police. When deputies arrived on the scene, they saw a man seated with his legs extended out and his left foot crossed over his right foot. That man was later identified as Magee.

Three items were found near his body: an unopened “Color Sheet Wraps,” the cardboard packaging for the blue rope Magee purchased a day earlier at the Walmart Supercenter, the blue rope itself, and a white plastic bag to the west of him, according to a police search warrant signed by Det. Labra. Color Sheet Wraps are a brand of tobacco products.

Magee’s family has a GoFundMe with a $20,000 fundraising goal. At publishing time, $18,207 has been raised. 

“Our son Javion Magee was found in Henderson, North Carolina, hanging from a tree. Our hearts are heavy, and the stress of trying to find answers and traveling back and forth is weighing heavily,” according to Marcus Gates, the organizer for the GoFundMe page. “For those who can, thank you and for those who can’t, thank you. Be blessed and love your family and hold on to them.”

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