New details are coming to light as friends of Jerard “Jay” Jackson and Michigan State Police open up about what happened to the 28-year-old.
Jackson was found dead on June 30. The coroner told his family he was found hanging from a tree in the woods.
He was in Roxbury, Michigan, for Electric Forest, a popular summer music festival.
Michigan State Police said Jackson left the festival at 10 a.m. Troopers had been out there earlier that morning after Jackson reported an alleged criminal incident involving a friend.
Investigators spoke with Atlanta Black Star and clarified that no crime was committed.
An officer said he called the cops on himself because Jackson believed he had committed a crime. His friends and investigators all reassured him that he did not.
Our reporter asked the investigator how he knew it was suicide. The investigator said, “It looked like that, so that’s why I said it appeared to be a suicide.”
The investigator highlighted that the cause of death is still under investigation.
Jackson’s friend Conor Prettyman posted in the music festival group chat that morning, asking if anyone had seen Jackson.
Prettyman wrote in the post that he was concerned about his friend because he was having a mental health crisis.
“He seemed very down on himself and had distanced himself from the rest of the group in the rental truck,” Prettyman told Atlanta Black Star. “We each took turns having conversations with him in order to cheer him up.”
La Toya Neal, Jackson’s aunt, accused Prettyman of changing the information in his initial Facebook post.
“When Conor was putting those types of things in his post and saying he had a mental crisis that he was reporting crimes,” Neal said. “Well, what crime was he reporting that didn’t happen, and why don’t you just say we were getting high?
Jackson’s group of friends was known to be into “serious drugs,” Neal claims.
“That’s why we didn’t want him to go,” Sean Phillips, Jackson’s stepfather, said.
“Out of respect for Jerard, I had removed a few details in the original posts I had made that weren’t relevant to the search,” Prettyman said. “I was the only person who was asleep when he drove off.”
Neal also accused Prettyman of covering up the fact that he and her nephew were doing drugs.
“The reason I stated in my original post that he was potentially going through a ‘mental health crisis’ was because that entire day, he was not acting like himself,” Prettyman said. “He was always the most social out of everyone.”
Prettyman agreed he’d be willing to speak with Jackson’s family about what happened. But Jackson’s stepfather, Sean Phillips, said now’s not the time.
“We don’t need to hear from him,” Phillips said. He added that Jackson’s mother is absolutely heartbroken over her son’s death.
Phillips explained that Prettyman was a part of a group of friends who were not good influences on Jackson. Prettyman confirmed that Jackson was doing drugs that weekend.
“It is unclear what substances Jerard had taken on his own as he had mostly isolated himself the entire day,” he said.
The official autopsy has yet to be released.
