Family calls for reopening of 1985 Concord suicide case

CONCORD, California. – Timothy Charles Lee was found hanging from a tree in Concord in 1985 and his death was immediately ruled a suicide.

But given the many questions that have remained unanswered for 39 years, his family and lawyers want the case reopened.

Lee, a 23-year-old black and Native American gay man, was found hanging from a sycamore tree near the Concord BART station on November 2, 1985.

Lee’s death was ruled a suicide, but several factors have made his family and advocates suspicious, including the way his sister’s name was misspelled on the alleged suicide note, the destruction of evidence by the Concord Police Department within 24 hours of his death, and the fact that two other black men in the Concord area were stabbed that same night by two individuals wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.

In March 1986, The Oakland Tribune reported that handwriting expert Andrea McNichol, president of Graphology Consultants International, said the note did not fit Lee’s usual style.

Frank Sterling, Lee’s cousin and organizer of the memorial walk, said that if Lee had written the note himself, he may have written it under duress and deliberately misspelled the names so his family would know something was wrong.

“In fact, (his sister) Tammy said he did it on purpose, and he drew a funny shape, like a hangman’s noose, as if he was trying to indicate something,” Sterling said, adding that even though he 39 years ago, collects signatures for a petition. Once the number reaches at least 500, he and other advocates will refer the request to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, hoping his office will reopen the investigation.

Lee’s attorneys will hold a memorial walk Saturday at the Rainbow Community Center in Concord and continue to push for his case to be reopened.

What happened that night in 1985 shocked the community and was widely reported in various local media. Many of the clippings were collected from the FBI’s files on the case.

On the Friday evening before his early death Saturday morning, Lee was riding BART from San Francisco to his home in Berkeley when he fell asleep on the train and missed his stop.

He woke up in Concord and couldn’t catch a train back since the system was closed. He contacted his girlfriend Joyce Carter, who said he called her from a pay phone just after 1 a.m. to ask for a ride, but she was unable to provide one.

A Concord resident found Lee around noon Saturday, his body hanging from a tree in a vacant lot off Mount Diablo Street.

Newspaper clippings from the time showed that then-Concord Police Chief George Straka said there were no signs of a struggle at the death scene and that medical reports showed that Lee’s neck was not broken by the hanging, which would be indicative for foul play.

“Most suicides (by hanging) result in death by asphyxiation or compression,” Straka said in a January 8, 1986 article from the San Francisco Examiner. Still, the NAACP pushed to get the FBI involved after local authorities ruled the case a suicide, given previous race-related crimes in Concord. And Marilyn Hannum and William Callison – a couple who lived near where Lee was found – came forward with reports of hearing screams the night he died.

Hannum’s affidavit details her account of how she emerged from her home after hearing the screams and witnessing a group of people, including a person who appeared to be in uniform.

“It looked like someone was writing something while leaning over the hood of a car while the others gathered around him,” Hannum wrote. “I only had a second to catch a glimpse of this when the uniformed person noticed me. He or she turned around when they saw me, shouted a few shocked words and started running towards me as if he was planning to give chase I immediately turned around and ran back home and locked the door.”

The affidavit also alleged that Hannum received threatening phone calls after the death. Sterling was referring to a 1977 Contra Costa Times article that reported on the KKK’s attempt to recruit police officers for its Contra Costa County “Klavern” or Klan unit.

Given the historical connection, Sterling expressed the need to separate the sheriff’s office from the coroner, which is the same office that determines causes of death. Although he was young when his cousin died, Sterling said it is important to continue advocating for the case to be reopened.

“We are the last generation of family that can hold these people accountable,” he continued. “If the people who killed Timmy were around his age, they could still be alive, in their mid to late 60s, early 70s, in Concord, hanging out with their grandkids, living their lives while Timmy’s family died young and died of stress . .”

The walk starts at the Rainbow Community Center, 2380 Salvio St., Suite 301, in Concord; on November 2 at 3 p.m., attendees will then walk to the tree where Lee died for a candlelight vigil.