A gruesome story came out on the news recently about a Mississippi man, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Claiborne County.

The FBI and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are currently investigating the death in order to determine if it was a suicide or a homicide, CNN reported.

According to the news source, the man’s body was found hanging from a tree with a bed sheet tied around the neck and a skull cap placed on his head.

Local law enforcement believes the man to be Otis Byrd, a convicted murderer.

In 1980, he was convicted for murdering a woman, and in 2006, he was released on parole and had been missing for the past two weeks, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

According to the news source, the man was found near his family’s home.

While there are not enough details to draw any conclusions, the situation seems suspicious and it seems as though something more could be behind this violent act.

If it wasn’t suicide, what could’ve provoked someone to do something so malicious to someone else? If the man is Byrd, his record leads us to believe he wasn’t an innocent man, but there’s no excuse for such a heinous act.

CNN reported that federal authorities are investigating whether or not he was killed as the result of a racial hate crime.

Last year, a similar situation transpired in North Carolina, where black teenager Lennon Lacy was found hanging from the frame of a swing set.

Both situations are still unsolved, and occurred in the South, where racial tensions have a deep-rooted history.

However, it’s too early to speculate on what exactly happened.