One week after his disappearance in Jackson on March 25, 2024, Sudanese native Dau Mabil was called a “Lost Man.” 

The tragic irony is that 23 years ago, Mabil had been introduced to the greater Jackson community as one of nine “Lost Boys” brought to Mississippi through the agency of Catholic Charities.

“A Lost Boy of the Sudan is now a lost man, and he has been lost for seven days,” said Jeff Good, owner-manager of Sal & Mookie’s Restaurant, where Dau had worked for many years. Good played a key role in organizing the rally that called for any information possible on the man who worked as the managing chef of the restaurant’s pizza operation. 

“Dau is a pizza chef at Sal & Mookie’s,” said Good. “Dau came to me 23 years ago as a Lost Boy. He is now a Lost Man.”

Dau was reported missing on March 25 after he had gone out for a routine walk through his Belhaven Heights neighborhood.

Dau’s disfigured and apparently mutilated body was retrieved from the Pearl River in Lawrence County on April 13, twelve days after the rally was organized to find him.

Almost prophetically, Dau’s foster mother, Vallena Greer of Jackson, compared his disappearance to Emmett Till’s 1955 kidnapping and murder in Money, Mississippi. 

“I wasn’t on the program to speak,” she said. “But when I feel the need to say something, I will speak. I spoke and told them that Dau was not a drunk and told them what Dau had told me. 

“I believe this is an Emmett Till performance,” the longtime community activist said to the crowd.

Events would prove her right. The mangled and disfigured body of Dau Mabil pulled from the Pearl River in Lawrence County on April 13 cast a lot of doubt on the local sheriff’s early declaration that there was no evidence of foul play. 

Greer compared a picture of the deceased Dau Mabil pulled from the Pearl River with a picture of Emmett Till’s severely disfigured body pulled from the Tallahatchie River nearly 70 years ago.

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped from his great-uncle’s house in Money, Mississippi, by several white men in August 1955. And his body was later found horrendously beaten and shot in the head before it was dumped into the nearby Tallahatchie. 

CONFLICTS AND ISSUES

Dau’s widow, Karissa Bowley Mabil, who reported that she had moved in temporarily with her mother before Dau’s disappearance due to an ongoing dispute with him, said she called and filed a missing person report after a number of peculiar developments occurred. 

“I got a message from Dau that he was going on a pretty routine walk and that he was leaving his phone at home on the charger,” Bowley said at the rally. “He left our house at 11:58, or noon. We caught him on camera just minutes later. So, we know he left on his walk. The last confirmed sighting of him was via video, or on camera, was of him 20 minutes later walking south on Jefferson.”

Bul Mabil of Houston, TX, Dau Mabil’s older brother and another of the Lost Boys who had been given refuge in Jackson, explained the fatal situation that his brother wound up in after seeking freedom from the trauma of war in their homeland of the Sudan.

“We were brought to Jackson 23 years ago to escape the horrors of wars in Sudan,” Bul Mabil said at the April 1 rally. “Unfortunately, my brother Dau has gone missing. And I‘m desperately trying to locate him. My family and I will not stop looking for Dau until he has been found and returned home safe and sound.” 

The concerns of the three families – Bowley, Greer, and Mabil – related through Dau Mabil’s mysterious absence and confirmed death two weeks afterwards, would soon converge in the tragic suggestions of what might have caused his death less than a week after the April 1 gathering.

Dau’s age in official reports was given as 33. His foster mother, Vallena Greer, said he was seven when he became a member of her family.

LATEST UPDATES

The latest report on the court-authorized second autopsy is that the toxicology reports, which can take quite a long time to complete, are still not ready. Greer said that JPD Detective Sgt. Joanna Archie, who no longer works in JPD investigations, reported a number of facts that contradicted the early reports from the two police agencies handling the case.

RUSHED REPORTS

On April 18, Lawrence County Sheriff Ryan Everett informed Mabil’s family and loved ones of the autopsy findings that confirmed the body found in the Pearl River was that of Dau Mabil. “I wanted to make sure that the notification had been done prior to any type of news release,” Everett said. “The autopsy did not reveal any type of foul play. The official determination may be made at a later time pending further testing.”

Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey made a similar announcement within the same time frame, saying “there is no evidence of homicide,” or “foul play.” 

“There is speculation, rumor going around about this being a homicide is completely unfounded,” said Luckey. “We have the medical examiner’s office with a preliminary investigation stating that there is absolutely no trauma to the body anywhere on the body, also stating there is no sign of any other form of trauma-related traditional forms of homicide,” said Luckey.

Attorneys Lisa M. Ross and Carlos Tanner, representing the family of Dau Mabil, questioned the credibility of the law enforcement officers’ public statements. 

“The narrative that’s been put out about him just disappearing somehow in the thin air or that there was nobody involved in the situation that it was a solo act of his own, we have credible information that leads us to believe otherwise,” said Attorney Tanner.

MORE SUSPICIONS

Despite official disclaimers of any evidence of homicide or trauma in the autopsy of Dau Mabil’s body, Bul Mabil asked for a second autopsy to be financed by Mabil’s family. During the hearing for the private autopsy, Attorney Ross pushed the idea that Bowley might be implicated in some non-innocent way. 

Attorney Paloma Wu, representing Bowley, said that Ross irresponsibly made implications that Bowley was involved with the disappearance of her husband.

Chancery Judge DeWayne Thomas decided on May 4 that Karissa Bowley was Dau Mabil’s next of kin, while also declaring that his brother Bul Mabil had “no standing as the plaintiff.” But he allowed Mabil to request and pay the costs of the second autopsy, with the agreement of the surviving spouse, Karissa Bowley, on who would conduct the autopsy. 

Attorney Ross referred all Jackson Advocate questions and comments to Dau’s brother, Bul Mabil.

POLICE INVESTIGATORS AT ODDS

Bowley expressed her disappointment over the lack of cooperation between JPD and Capitol Police, the state police authority whose district includes the Belhaven area.

Although both agencies “sort of claimed” the Dau Mabil case, says Bowley, “they refuse to behave as if they are” working the same case.

“They were very much working on two different cases, so we were frustrated with that. We were frustrated by the slowness and kind of calmness that they seemed to have about the whole situation,” Bowley was quoted in the Clarion Ledger.

Former Detective Joanna Archie referred the Jackson Advocate to the JPD Public Information Officer Tommy Brown, who in turn advised that Deputy Chief in Charge of Investigations Sequerna Banks should be approached with questions regarding the case. Banks did not respond to repeated calls to her office.

THEN AND NOW

Greer feels there are a number of similarities between her late foster son Dau Mabil and Emmett Louis Till, the victim of white lynch law in 1955. “My son Dau Mabil was murdered,” Greer said. “Just like Emmett Till was murdered.”

“The officials said he had jumped into the river. But how could he jump in the river with his feet crossed? The detective said he had been tied up. And that’s why his feet were tied because when the body is cold the feet will lock like that. And they are still locked on the pictures.”

Some frames on the video where Dau was last seen showed a girl on the track running along following Dau, Greer said. According to the autopsy done by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner, “they said all of his organs were intact, no damage to his organs. But if he was an alcoholic, there would have been damage there. There is an audio that contradicts everything the Mississippi autopsy says,” Greer said.

“Detective Joanna Archie (who is no longer assigned to the Dau Mabil case) says he did not drown. There was nothing in his organs or his body that indicated drowning. She said she was going by what the autopsy reported, because she would have never said he drowned, because there was no such evidence,” Greer said.

Greer also said that the detective pointed out stab wounds on the side of Dau’s head, in his right chin, and in his right thigh. Greer said the autopsy report said the water took his hair off, but she thought his head looked as if it had been shaved. 

“There’s a big dent in the top of his head,” she said, “And he had a big gash over his right eye. He didn’t have a dent in his head (while alive). And his feet had been tied up.”

THOMPSON ASKS DOJ TO INVESTIGATE

Second District Congressman Bennie Thompson requested the support of the U. S. Justice Dept in solving the mystery of what exactly happened to cause the death of Dau Mabil. “After receiving calls from concerned constituents, I am committed to leveraging all resources to support a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Mabil’s disappearance. Therefore, I urge the Department of Justice to work with state and local officials,” Thompson wrote to the DOJ on April 17.

In remembering the young African boy who had become a member of her family at the age of seven until he moved out on his own to attend college, Vallena Greer said she cherished the memories that she had shared with her foster son for over two decades. 

“Dau is the sweetest soul,” she said. “He never met a stranger. He never met a stray dog. He was always trying to look out for everything and everybody. Dau was always very humble. He was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen.”