A Mother Finds Out Her Missing Son Was Killed Then Buried By Police Months Later.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) - For 172 days, Bettersten Wade left no stone unturned in searching for her 37-year-old son.

She asked neighbors, searched abandoned houses, called detectives and posted messages on social media begging him to come home.

Dexter Wade would never see those messages.

He was killed on the night of March 5 after being struck by an off-duty police officer driving along I-55 south, officials said.

The mother questions why it took so long for the Jackson Police Department to tell her about her son’s death.

She found out in late August, months after she filed her initial missing person’s report. She also questions what happened to the officer involved.

“An officer comes to tell me he killed somebody on the freeway, and I’m just going to sign off on it?” she asked. “I don’t have (any) information on what happened, what you did or nothing.

“Every job I worked at, if I (had) an incident on a job, I had to explain why.”

Bettersten Wade says she filed her missing person’s report on March 14, days after the Hinds County Coroner’s Office was able to officially identify Dexter Wade’s remains.

“When police stop you, the first thing they do is go run your name,” she said. “They tell you your address, everywhere you lived, everything.

“Why didn’t they run his name (or) take his handprints to know who he (was)?”

She previously filed a wrongful death suit against the Jackson Police Department in connection with the death of another family member, her brother George Robinson. That suit is still pending in Hinds County Circuit Court. In July, Judge Debra Gibbs recused herself.

Meanwhile, criminal charges against two of the officers involved in Robinson’s death were dismissed. Another officer, Anthony Fox, was sentenced to five years in prison in August 2022 after being found guilty of culpable negligence manslaughter.

Several agencies, including the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Clinton Police Department and Jackson police, say Fox’s conviction should be reversed.

As for Dexter Wade, he had no identification at the time he was hit but did have a prescription drug bottle with his name on it.

According to an NBC News investigation, an investigator with the coroner was able to officially confirm his identity and determine his next of kin by March 8.

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