Javion Magee
Who Javion was
Javion Magee was 21 and from Aurora, Illinois, outside Chicago, where much of his family lives. His parents are Tiara Roberson Gates and Kori Magee.
He followed his father into trucking. He earned his commercial driver's license in 2024, and he was on his first trucking job when he died. His father describes him as hard-working and competitive, and a family attorney said he was working toward financial independence. A family representative said he loved being a truck driver, loved his family, and loved enjoying himself.
His father says Javion wanted everyone to come together. Police say that the evening before he was found, he gave $228 to a homeless man outside a Henderson Walmart, telling him, "I don't know how much it is, but if I had more I would give it to you."
In the words of those who knew them
What happened
Javion Magee, 21, a truck driver from Aurora, Illinois, delivered a load to the Walmart Distribution Center in Henderson, North Carolina, on Sept. 10, 2024. That evening, police say, he gave $228 to a homeless man outside a Henderson Walmart. Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame later released a timeline saying surveillance video showed Javion walking alone toward a tree line by a dirt lot on Vanco Mill Road around 7:30 p.m. and not returning to his truck. His father, Kori Magee, said he'd last spoken with his son a couple of days before he was found.
Around 10 a.m. on Sept. 11, people mowing grass nearby found him in the wooded area and called 911. Brame said no foul play was suspected and that the death wasn't a lynching. A preliminary exam found no defensive wounds and no sign of physical or sexual assault. The family, who said he'd had plans to visit cousins in Texas, met with investigators for about two hours. On Sept. 18 his parents appeared outside the Vance County courthouse with attorneys Harry Daniels, Lee Merritt and Jason Keith, who called a suicide finding premature and said the family would seek an independent autopsy.
On May 7, 2025, the state medical examiner's autopsy report was released, ruling the death a suicide. No results of an independent autopsy have been reported.
The case
- Where found
- Wooded area in Vance County
- Official finding
- Suicide (NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, autopsy report released May 7, 2025)
- Time to finding
- About eight months from discovery to the medical examiner's ruling
- Investigation
- Vance County Sheriff found no foul play.
- Family position
- The family doubts the finding. Their attorneys, Harry Daniels, Lee Merritt and Jason Keith, said an independent autopsy was planned; no results have been reported.
- Public evidence
- Autopsy found no defensive wounds and no signs of assault.
- Federal review
- Named in Pressley letter to DOJ/FBI (Sept 2026)
- Last verified
- 2026-10-18
Sources
- ABC11
- WFDD (AP): Family of man found dead demands answers; sheriff says no foul play detected
- ABC7 Chicago: Family of Aurora man demand thorough investigation
- WIZS: Parents will call for an independent autopsy into death of 21-year-old Javion Magee
- NBC Chicago: Hours before he was last seen, a final act of kindness
Record history
- Oct 18, 2026 · Reviewed updateRecord updated
- What happened updated
- What happened sources updated
- Oct 18, 2026 · Reviewed updatePortrait added (Courtesy of the Magee family, via ABC11)
- Oct 18, 2026 · Reviewed updateRecord updated
- Official finding: Suicide (NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, autopsy report released May 7, 2025)
- Time to finding: About eight months from discovery to the medical examiner's ruling
- Family position: The family doubts the finding. Their attorneys, Harry Daniels, Lee Merritt and Jason Keith, said an independent autopsy was planned; no results have been reported.
- Oct 18, 2026 · Reviewed updateRecord updated
- Life updated
- Remembered updated
- Life sources updated
- Oct 15, 2026 · Initial recordInitial record from prototype research