JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge granted a request Thursday by the widow of a deceased man who vanished under mysterious circumstances to set standards for a future independent autopsy of her late husband’s body.
Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas formalized through a court order comments he made at a Tuesday hearing that the body of Dau Mabil would be preserved at the Mississippi state crime lab while investigators try to shed light on what happened to the man.
“I’m relieved to have more of an opportunity to grieve,” Karissa Bowley, Mabil’s widow, told The Associated Press. “Now we can get back to what we were already doing, which is trying to find out as much as we can about whatever happened to Dau.”
Mabil, who lived in Jackson with Bowley, went missing in broad daylight on March 25 after going for a walk. Mabil escaped a bloody civil war in Sudan as a child and built a new life in America. His disappearance prompted an outcry from civil rights organizations and is alleged to have sparked discord between local law enforcement agencies.