Authorities have ruled the hanging death of 21-year-old Taemon Blair a suicide, however, his family members are not convinced and are calling for police to continue investigating his death.
According to the
Allen County Coroner’s Office in Fort Wayne, Ind., Blair, a Charlotte, N.C. native, was found dead on March 14 in the city.
Fox46 Charlotte reports that he was discovered hanged in the tractor-trailer he had been driving for his job.
The coroner’s office ruled his cause of death as “asphyxia due to hanging” and claimed it was a suicide, but Blair’s family, speaking to
Fox46 remain unconvinced.
“We just want him to get justice. That’s all we want. We just want to find out exactly if somebody did it who did it and why, and we want to open it back up to see,” Blair’s older brother Dee Smith told the news station.
His family claimed that the young man had no reason to kill himself, and believe that foul play had a hand in his death.
Smith
started a GoFundMe campaign to help with funeral costs for the 21-year-old, which has raised more than $7,000 of its $10,000 as of Wednesday night.
In the GoFundMe description, Smith reiterated that he did not think that his brother killed himself.
“He was 6’5, I thought to myself, how could he hang himself inside of a truck when he’s so tall. This is sooooo devastating for our family. So unexpected!” Smith wrote. “If this wasn’t a suicide, I really hope that the police will find who killed [Taemon]!”
“It’s just a lot of unanswered questions for them to just rule it a suicide and just sweep it under the rug like it was nothing,” Smith added to the news station.
On social media, others have also voiced their suspicions about the case.
https://twitter.com/NigelJohnsonFL/status/1110246151452835840
https://twitter.com/JaeElleBaby/status/1108046515333926912
https://twitter.com/ChristianaD/status/1108794094132883456
The death also drew attention from Hip Hop artist T.I., who shared an image of Blair on Instagram in a post that questioned why his death was “splashed all over media.”
