Black Man Found Hanging: What Happened To Jayvon Givan?

Police Lights — Source: WISH-TV / WISH-TV

At this point, it’s difficult not to get upset or suspicious each time a Black man is found hanged and his death is swiftly ruled a suicide.

On Sept. 17, 2024, the body of 29-year-old Jayvon Givan was found hanging from a metal chain from a commercial building in Corrales, New Mexico, according to the Kansas City Defender. The Albuquerque Police Department ruled his death a suicide, as did an investigator with the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI), who reportedly examined Givan’s body at the scene and determined there were no signs of foul play. Already, this story is sounding eerily similar to that of several recent cases of Black people found hanging, only for it to be ruled, seemingly immediately, that they took their own lives. The only real difference this time is that Givan was found hanging from a chain and pillar rather than a tree.

“They did find the man, hanging by a chain, basically a pillar of a wall that was outside of a business that was closed for renovations,” APD’s Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos told KOAT 7. “There was a bolt or something at the top of the wall. Not very high, maybe seven feet or so. The chain kind of wrapped around it. So, he was just a couple feet up from the ground. It wasn’t a tree. There wasn’t a forest or anything like that.”

Another similarity Givan’s story shares with that of other Black people found hanging is that his family is not buying that he killed himself — and with good reason. One thing law enforcement officials have not come up with a reasonable explanation for yet is why Givan’s family didn’t know about his death until more than a year after it happened.

On Oct. 1, 2025, 384 days after Givan’s body was discovered, his twin sister, Jaivryon Walker, filed a missing person’s report, saying the family hadn’t heard from Givan since Aug. 28, 2024, which would have been 20 days before authorities said he died.

“He reached out to everybody for money on the same day,” Walker told The Defender. “More than 20 people said that Jayvon contacted them on August 28, 2024. Everybody said the same thing. It seemed like he was running from something.”

From KOAT:

Officers were dispatched to APD in reference to a caller who advised her twin brother had been missing for approximately one year.
She advised she was calling from Kansas City, and Givan was last known to be in Albuquerque
According to APD, she told officers Givan left Kansas City to backpack through America approximately one year and two months ago. According to officers, she stated he advised her he was in “trouble,” but was OK.
According to Givan’s sister, the family had not heard from Givan since.
She described her brother as an approximately “5’07” Black male adult, approximately 140 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.” Givan has a tattoo on his left arm with clouds and hands. She did not mention any physical or mental health issues.

Givan was entered into the NCIC (National Crime Information Center, Missing and Unidentified Persons system)

“She had officers report him as missing, which they did. Those officers turned it over to the dispatcher to turn it over to the missing persons unit on Friday, and our detective with the missing persons unit looked up his name, found that there was a report from last year from that death that was ruled a suicide,” Gallegos said. “The missing person’s detective contacted this man’s sister, who had called us, reported to her that he unfortunately had died by suicide, and explained the circumstances as he understood it. That’s the last contact we had with the family member. It’s obvious that she didn’t know ahead of time.”

In fact, according to the Defender, Givan’s body had been cremated by the time his family found out he was dead.

From the Defender:

Virtually no investigation. No autopsy to the family’s knowledge. No notification. Just a two-page incident report classifying a Black man found hanged in public as “suicide” and a body turned to ash before anyone who loved him could say goodbye.

“That is not negligence. And it’s not a rumor like we’ve heard people online say. This is a cover-up,” organizers from Building Power for Black New Mexico, had been wearing a hospital bracelet when he was found, suggesting a recent medical visit. Millions for Prisoners New Mexico, Albuquerque Save the Kids, and the SouthWest Solidarity Network told The Defender in a statement ahead of an emergency press conference on October 6th 2025.

The Defender has obtained the full police reports, and what they reveal is a department that never intended to investigate Jayvon Givan’s death meaningfully at all.

Seriously, how does this work? How are the investigators able to determine so much about Givan that they can know with certainty that his death was a suicide without even having figured out who he was? If they did know his identity, how could they cremate his body before finding his family? Why weren’t they able to find his next of kin? What is even going on here?

Actually, according to KOB 4, investigators had to have known who Givan was, as he had been wearing a hospital bracelet when he was found, suggesting a recent medical visit. According to the police report, his last known address was at an emergency housing shelter in Santa Fe, and, at the time of his death, he had an active warrant on a charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery tied to a Cricket Wireless theft investigation, accusing Givan of stealing cell phones to exchange them for cash at Eco ATMs. Again, how is it possible that investigators had this much information on him, and yet, his family had no idea he was dead until more than a year later?

His journal was also found at the scene, and, apparently, some of its contents led investigators to believe he took his own life.

“I did watch a little bit of the OBRD (bodycam), and I think just reading some of the things that were in his journal — the notebook that was there, led them in that direction. As far as the physical evidence, he was positioned in a way where you could see where he could have could have done what they suggested,” Gallego told KOAT.

Yeah, sorry, but even for a copsplanation, that was just useless.

Look, just last month, activists, family members, attorneys, and people across social media were calling for an independent investigation into the death of 21-year-old Delta State University student Demartravion “Trey” Reed, who was discovered mysteriously hanging from a tree on campus. Reed’s death was also quickly ruled a suicide after investigators determined “there is no evidence of foul play.” And Reed’s family was, at the very least, doubtful that he took his own life, and, more to the point, certain that the authorities were being far less than transparent about the circumstances surrounding his death, much like Givan’s family, who says that regardless of what “trouble” he might have been in, he showed no signs that he would take his own life.

“When I say he loved life, he loved life. That is not a suicidal person. Nothing about him comes across suicidal. It’s raising red flags with all our family members because we know who he is,” Walker told the Defender, noting that her brother had a girlfriend who was pregnant.

As in all of these recent cases, Jayvon Givan’s family is calling for a full and honest investigation into his death, and justice if it is discovered that he did not kill himself. Unfortunately, these cases tend to end with the authorities sticking to their guns and leaving these cases closed as the suicides they were initially ruled as.

In Givan’s case, they need to have a damn good explanation for why his family wasn’t notified, and, so far, it does not appear that they have one.

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Black Man Found Hanging: What Happened To Jayvon Givan? was originally published on newsone.com