The Vance County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the death of a 21-year-old man who was found Wednesday morning, but District Attorney Mike Waters said the man apparently took his own life.
In a phone interview with WIZS News on Friday afternoon, Waters said he had reviewed evidence in the case and the evidence suggests that Javion Magee, of Aurora, IL, died from an apparent suicide.
The investigation is ongoing in the case, but Waters provided some details.
He said sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call about a man who “appeared to be hanging from a tree.”
“He was in a supine position, basically like he sat down,” Waters added, “with his feet touching the ground, but (he) did have a rope tied around his neck, in such a manner as to asphyxiate himself.”
Further investigation at the scene turned up a Walmart bag containing packaging that had a barcode, which led investigators to a local Walmart where they obtained a video of the subject entering the store by himself and purchasing a rope that was recovered at the scene.
That rope is currently in evidence.
The subject drove his tractor trailer rig, minus the trailer, to a nearby hotel where he inquired about a room, but none was available, Waters continued. He drove to a nearby distribution facility where he parked the tractor, “and that video shows him walking into the woods with a white plastic bag,” Waters said. “He was found very close to where he was last seen.”
None of the video footage shows Magee was accompanied by anyone else. “He did not appear to have anybody with him at any point,” Waters said.
The investigation is ongoing, and an autopsy will be performed by the chief medical examiner, as Sheriff Curtis Brame explained in a press statement released earlier Friday.
Waters said a search warrant will be issued for the vehicle Magee was driving to attempt to recover any digital evidence including phone records.