June 11, 2005

From CBS Affiliate, Channel 2, Chicago

Till Autopsy May Have Found Bullet Fragments

Jun 11, 2005 4:35 pm US/Central
CHICAGO (AP) Preliminary results from the recent autopsy of Emmett Till turned up what examiners believe are bullet fragments from the 1955 slaying of the Chicago teen.

Investigators are now awaiting test results to verify that the fragments are bullet shards, according to a published report. Authorities earlier raised the possibility that the June 1 exhumation of Till's remains could produce a bullet or other evidence that could help prosecutors determine who and what killed the boy, whose brutal slaying in Mississippi helped spark the Civil Rights movement.

In a story reported from Greenville, Miss., the Chicago Sun-Times said investigators also are awaiting DNA tests from the autopsy to positively identify Till's body.

Two white men -- Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam -- were acquitted of Till's murder after defense attorneys suggested at trial that the body was not Till's and that the boy was still alive.

The men, however, later admitted in a magazine article to shooting and beating the boy, apparently for whistling at a white woman. Authorities have said the new investigation might reveal other conspirators who could be prosecuted if alive.

District Attorney Joyce Chiles, who is leading the investigation, said on Saturday that her office has not yet received the autopsy results. "I know nothing of bullet holes or bullets," she said.

Till was on a summer trip visiting relatives when he was abducted from his uncle's Money, Miss., home on Aug. 28, 1955. Fishermen found his disfigured body three days later in the Tallahatchie River.

The U.S. Justice Department reopened the Till investigation last year after reviewing several pieces of information, including a documentary by New York filmmaker Keith Beauchamp.

The recent autopsy was performed after authorities exhumed his body from a suburban Chicago cemetery. His body was reburied on June 4.