Hunters found the remains of Jimmie “Jay” Lee in Carroll County, Miss., over the weekend, ending a two-year search for the missing University of Mississippi student.
Lee’s body was in a patch of forest just off Highway 82 outside of the town of Winona at a well-known dumping ground for refuse and tires.
Carroll County Coroner Mark Stiles told the Mississippi Free Press in a Feb. 5 interview that the site was known to local law enforcement. “It’s used a lot,” he said. “The police are aware of it—they’ve had complaints from the landowners.” Business owners in the immediate area also expressed familiarity with the dumping ground.
After news first broke that hunters had found skeletal remains in Carroll County on Monday, Mississippi Today’s Molly Minta was the first to report that investigators believed the remains belonged to Lee. She reported that the remains included a gold necklace that formed the name “Jaylee,” like one that appeared in several of the missing UM graduate’s Instagram photos.
@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 320px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}
Investigators announced on Wednesday that DNA evidence confirmed the remains belonged to the missing UM student, who has long been presumed deceased. A judge pronounced him legally dead last November.
‘A Small Measure of Comfort’
Jay Lee, 20 at the time of his passing, was a student from Jackson who was gay and well-loved in the campus’s LGBTQ community in Oxford, Miss. Marches, gatherings and calls for justice followed Lee’s disappearance.
![]()
Security footage at the University of Mississippi showed 20-year-old student Jay Lee leaving his apartment twice on the morning he disappeared on July 8, 2022, campus police testified in court on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. Photo by Grace Marion ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1″ alt=”A sign with a $1000 reward to find Jay Lee” class=”wp-image-50203″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Jayleesign2.0_cred-Grace-Marion-1024×683.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px”>Community members in Oxford, Miss., spread missing persons flyers for University of Mississippi Student Jimmie “Jay”
