The body of Jerard "Jay" Jackson — a 28-year-old Black man from Illinois — was found hanging from a tree in the woods near Rothbury, Michigan, on June 30, 2026, roughly 150 feet off the Hart-Montague Trail. Michigan State Police arrived, declared the scene, and within hours issued a statement: preliminary findings indicate suicide, no indication of foul play. Case closed — before the autopsy was finished, before the toxicology was back, before anyone had even called Jay's mother with the full story.

Five weeks later, the autopsy report still hasn't been released. The body camera footage from the troopers who were the last people to see Jay alive has not been made public. And Jay's family says nothing about the official story adds up.

Photo of Jerard 'Jay' Jackson from his Instagram account @iamjksn.mp3

Electric Forest — a massive electronic music festival drawing 50,000 people to the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury, Michigan — ended its four-day run early Monday morning, June 29. Jay had rented an SUV, paid for multiple friends to attend, and driven the group from Illinois. He was, by all accounts, the only Black person in his camping group. He was also, by all accounts, the one bankrolling the trip.

What happened next depends on who you ask.

The Last People to See Him Alive Were Cops

Around 8:00 AM on Monday, June 29, witnesses say Jay spoke with Electric Forest Ground Control personnel. He did not appear suicidal. He did not appear to be a man planning to end his life in the woods.

Around 9:00 AM, according to Michigan State Police, Jay called troopers to his own campsite to report what he described as a criminal incident involving a friend. Troopers responded. They interviewed everyone involved. They determined that no crime had occurred and left the campsite.

What exactly Jay reported — what he believed this friend had done to him — has never been specified by police. What exactly the troopers said to Jay during their investigation has never been disclosed. Whether the troopers recognized that a man calling police on himself while camping at a music festival might be in the middle of a psychological emergency — and whether they did anything about it — is an open question that MSP has not addressed.

What is known is this: the last confirmed sighting of Jerard Jackson alive was at approximately 10:00 AM on Monday, June 29, when he left the festival grounds alone. The people who saw him immediately before that were Michigan State troopers.

The Only Black Man in the Group Came Back in a Body Bag

Jay's aunt, La Toya Neal, and stepfather, Sean Phillips, spoke with Atlanta Black Star about what they know — and what they don't.

"No way he committed suicide. He was just enjoying life, living life to the fullest. This makes no sense."
— La Toya Neal, Jay's aunt

Neal said the coroner told the family that Jay was found hanging from a tree. His body was discovered approximately 150 to 200 feet from his parked rental vehicle.

Phillips said something else that doesn't fit: both the driver's side door and the front passenger door of the rental SUV were left open when the vehicle was found. Jay's wallet and keys were inside. His phone was not.

"They took his phone and keys away. Everybody, including our son, knows he's directionally challenged. He does not go anywhere without a phone."
— Sean Phillips, Jay's stepfather

Jay's phone — a critical piece of evidence that could contain location data, messages, call logs, timestamps, and perhaps even audio or video of his final hours — was reportedly left behind at the campsite. Who had it? When was it last used? These are questions MSP has not publicly answered.

Even more disturbing: a bank account alert showed someone tried to log into Jay's account at 12:01 PM on Monday — two hours after he was last seen alive. Family members have also raised questions about alleged Apple Pay transactions at a nearby gas station after Jay was already reported missing. According to accounts shared by individuals close to the family, members of Jay's group later acknowledged using his Apple Pay that day. These claims have not been confirmed by investigators, and MSP has not commented on the reported financial activity.

The "Mental Health Crisis" Narrative

Conor Prettyman, described as Jay's best friend and the person who rented the group's festival campsite, posted in an Electric Forest Facebook group the morning Jay disappeared, asking if anyone had seen him.

"It is thought that he might have had some sort of mental crisis and wandered off. He had tried to turn himself into police, and they began questioning him."
— Conor Prettyman, Facebook post

Prettyman later told Atlanta Black Star that he had been the only person asleep when Jay drove off. He acknowledged Jay was doing drugs that weekend and said he had been isolated from the group for much of the day.

But the family pushes back hard on the "mental health crisis" framing. Jay was never diagnosed with any mental health disorder, according to his family. Neal accused Prettyman of fabricating the mental health narrative to cover up the fact that the group was engaging in drug use.

"When Conor was putting those types of things in his post and saying he had a mental crisis that he was reporting crimes — well, what crime was he reporting that didn't happen, and why don't you just say we were getting high?"
— La Toya Neal

Jay's stepfather was more blunt about the friend group's influence:

"That's why we didn't want him to go."
— Sean Phillips

The family also alleges that Prettyman changed details in his initial Facebook posts after Jay's body was found, and that multiple social media posts, comments, and accounts associated with members of the group were later deleted, edited, or set to private. Prettyman acknowledged removing some details from his posts, saying they weren't relevant to the search.

Prettyman has maintained his innocence.

"Jerard was my best friend, and his death has been devastating. I had no involvement in his death. To my knowledge, I have never been interviewed by detectives regarding this matter."
— Conor Prettyman, statement to Atlanta Black Star

When asked if Prettyman should speak with the family about what happened, Phillips had a simple answer: "We don't need to hear from him."

The Friends Went Home. Jay Didn't.

Perhaps the most damning detail in this entire story is the simplest: Jay's friends returned to Illinois without him. A man they described as having a mental health crisis, who had just called police on himself, who was behaving erratically and isolating from the group — they packed up, got in the rental SUV, and drove home. An eerie parallel to the Nolan Wells case at Horn Island.

They did not stay to search for him. They did not wait for police to find him. They did not, according to the family, contact Jay's mother to tell her what had happened. They left.

Jay was found dead the next day by law enforcement, his body in the woods near the trail, his rental car nearby with the doors open and his wallet inside. A coroner told the family he was hanged.

And the friends who were with him — the ones who had his phone, who were the subject of his frantic police call, who left while he was still missing — they were already back in Illinois.

The Investigation That Isn't

Michigan State Police have said the investigation is "active and ongoing" and that it is "being treated as a top priority." A spokesperson told Billboard that investigators "continue to follow up on all leads, conduct interviews, and work closely with our forensic and prosecutorial partners to ensure every aspect of this case is thoroughly examined."

But as of this reporting, more than five weeks after Jay's death:

• The official autopsy report has not been released
• Toxicology results are not public
• Body camera footage from the troopers' campsite interaction has not been confirmed or released
• The "alleged criminal incident" Jay reported has never been specified
• Jay's phone has not been mentioned as evidence in any public reporting
• No persons of interest have been named
• No one has been interviewed by detectives, according to Prettyman himself

When an Atlanta Black Star reporter asked an investigator how he knew it was suicide, the answer was chilling in its casualness:

"It looked like that, so that's why I said it appeared to be a suicide."

This is not an investigation. This is a scene clearance.

The Body They Tried to Cremate

The family has also raised an administrative concern that compounds their grief: according to family members, they were informed that Jay's body had been authorized for cremation because there was reportedly no identified next of kin — despite the family saying they had already been communicating with authorities throughout the investigation.

If true, this means the state was prepared to destroy the remains of a man whose death was under active investigation before his own family could claim him. For a case where the cause and manner of death are still formally pending a medical examiner's report, the premature cremation authorization would represent a catastrophic failure — or something worse.

MSP has not publicly commented on this allegation. UnTelevised Media could not independently verify the cremation authorization claim or if a cremation had occurred at time of writing.

The Electric Forest music festival at the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury, Michigan

A Pattern the Country Refuses to See

What happened to Jerard Jackson fits a pattern that Black families across America know intimately: a Black man or child found hanging, the body discovered in a public or semi-public place, the immediate ruling of suicide, the family's disbelief, and an investigation that moves with all the urgency of cold molasses.

In May 2026, UnTelevised Media documented the death of 15-year-old Tripp Brazeale in Forrest City, Arkansas — a case that mirrors Jay's in its grim contours — a teenager who fled into the woods during an encounter with a sheriff's deputy and was found two days later hanging from a tree. County authorities immediately ruled it suicide. After a private investigation, the state medical examiner changed the ruling to "undetermined." The deputy suspected in the case, Alvin Merle "Trey" Bynum, was later arrested on child pornography charges — a man who had access to Tripp in the hours before his death.

The circumstances are different. The pattern is not.

Black bodies hanging from trees. Immediate suicide rulings. Families begging for answers. Investigations that produce nothing. Autopsy reports that never seem to arrive. And a country that wants to believe these are isolated incidents — not the logical endpoint of a system that has always treated Black life as disposable.

Jerard Jackson was 28 years old. He was a son. He was a nephew. He was the friend who paid for everybody else to go to the festival. He was a man who, according to everyone who knew him, was living his life to the fullest. He was the only Black person in his group. And he came home from a music festival in a body bag.

Michigan State Police owe his family answers. They owe the public transparency. They owe Jerard Jackson the investigation he deserves — not a press release written before the body was cold.

The investigation is supposedly ongoing. The autopsy is supposedly pending. The body camera footage is supposedly somewhere. Until someone in authority produces actual evidence to support the suicide ruling — not the word of an investigator who said it "looked like that" — Jerard Jackson's family, and anyone paying attention, has every reason to believe this story is far from over.

How to Help

Anyone with information about Jerard Jackson's death should contact Michigan State Police or submit an anonymous tip through the MichTip system at www.michigan.gov/michtip or call 1-855-MICHTIP (642-4847).