On September 17, 2024, Jayvon Maurice Givan was found hanging by a metal chain from a commercial building in Corrales, New Mexico. He was 29 years old. The Albuquerque Police Department ruled his death a suicide and cremated his body before his family even knew he was dead.
For 384 days, no one told his family what happened.
It wasn’t until October 1, 2025—over a year after Jayvon’s death—that his cousin Jada Walker from Kansas City filed a missing persons report in Albuquerque and discovered the police had been sitting on his case file the entire time. 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, 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.
“Jay Loved Life. He Was Not Suicidal.”
Jada told The Defender she grew up with Jayvon and they even lived together at many points. She told The Defender the last time her family heard from him was August 28, 2024—twenty days before police say he died.
“He reached out to everybody for money on the same day,” Walker told The Defender by phone. “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.”
Jayvon had moved to Albuquerque just weeks earlier, on August 10, looking for a fresh start after the death of their grandmother in 2020. He was staying at the St. Elizabeth shelter, had gotten jobs at Dollar Tree and a gas station, and was rebuilding his life. Walker says he even had a girlfriend who was pregnant.
“When I say he loved life, he loved life,” Walker said, her voice firm with certainty. “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.”
The police never asked the family about Jayvon’s state of mind. They never asked about the frantic calls for money on August 28. They never asked why a man who loved life would hang himself in public twenty days later.
They just closed the case.
What the Police Reports Reveal—and Conceal
The Albuquerque Police Department’s incident report #240076648, obtained by The Defender, tells a story of bureaucratic indifference masquerading as investigation.
According to the primary report filed by Officer Homero Alvidrez on September 17, 2024, an employee at 10200 Corrales Road NW called 911 at 10:09 AM after discovering Jayvon’s body “hanging in front of the listed property.” The synopsis states: “The listed male was found deceased in front of the listed property by an employee who works at the property. Was found to have committed suicide by hanging himself.”
The narrative continues: “The male was found to have been hanging for a few hours. AFD Rescue also responded to the location and did not attempt life saving measures since Jayvon was beyond help.”
Officer Alvidrez notes that “a crime scene investigator along with an investigator with the Office Of The Medical Investigator (OMI) responded and examined Jayvon and the scene.” The Field Investigator Supplement, filed three days later by Officer Janie Miller, provides slightly more detail. Miller describes Jayvon as “fully clothed to include shoes” and notes: “He had used a metal chain with a carabiner to hang himself. The carabiner was attached to an eye hook that was already in place on the top of the pillar.”
Miller’s report states that the OMI investigator “pronounced time of death at 1124 Hrs” and that “OMI later transported Jayvon to their facility until a KIN was located for Jayvon.”
But no kin was located. Or rather, no kin was sought.
The reports make no mention of any attempt to contact Jayvon’s family in Kansas City. The only person listed in the “Relationships Addendum” is Martin Ulloa, whose relationship to Jayvon is marked “UNKNOWN.”
Walker says the detective who finally called her family on October 1, Detective Lorenzo Apocada, provided almost no information and then refused to return their calls.
“He asked us for the correct spelling of Jayvon’s name. I guess they had him under a JVR. The middle name was misspelled,” Walker recounted. “Then he told us that somebody would be contacting us. A detective called about two hours later and gave us the bad news.”
When the family asked basic questions—Was there an autopsy? What evidence was collected? Can we see photos to identify him?—the detective was evasive.
“He just said that his body was cremated and that we could get the police report online,” Walker said. “He never gave us any details. He never said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be sending you over some photos so you can identify him.’ My cousin was literally identified from the name, only name and birthday.”
Walker tried calling back. “We have left multiple voicemails. He just won’t return.”
“This Department Concealed the Lynching of a Black Man”
In light of Jayvon’s horrifying death, organizing groups pulling together Monday’s emergency press conference did not mince words in a statement to The Defender:
“This department concealed the lynching of a Black man for over a year, and had the audacity to label it a ‘suicide.’ We reject that narrative outright,” the statement reads. “Black people do not hang themselves in public in America. We know this because the history is written in blood. From Reconstruction to Jim Crow to right now, police and coroners have covered up racial terror by calling it ‘self-inflicted.’ These are not isolated incidents, they are continuations of state-sanctioned violence.”
The groups point to a disturbing national pattern: “Across the country, multiple Black men have been found dead by hanging in recent weeks, each case quickly ruled a ‘suicide’ before any meaningful investigation took place.”
Just weeks before Jayvon’s case came to light, Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, was found hanged. Authorities there also quickly ruled it a suicide despite questions from his community.
“This sophisticated machinery of racial terror is just a fascist strategy that relies on overwhelming force from multiple directions, including misinformation, intimidation and threats,” Terry Wilson, the founder of the Idaho chapter of the Black Lives Matter Grassroots chapter, told the Chicago Crusader in a statement about the Trey Reed case. “I think we’re witnessing a coordinated campaign of disappearances, lynchings and state sanctioned killings that target Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
He continued, “We need to address this method of ‘lynchings by suicide’ which is their way to rationalize, from a medical standpoint, their feelings. I think this is sort of a death rattle for white supremacy, because they’re relying on almost every structural institution in order to justify or cover up the actions of folks.”
The organizers’ on the ground in Albuquerque’s demands are clear and uncompromising:
- An immediate, independent investigation into the death of Jayvon Givan
- Full public release of all evidence, photos, and body camera footage related to the case
- Accountability for every officer and official who concealed, delayed, or distorted the facts
- A public acknowledgment from city and state leadership that anti-Black violence is alive in New Mexico—and that silence is complicity
“At best, this police department is grossly incompetent,” they told The Defender in a statement. “At worst, it has participated in covering up a modern-day lynching. Either way, we will not stand down.”
The Evidence APD Won’t Release to the Public
According to the police reports, critical evidence exists that has never been made public:
- 39 photographs taken at the scene and held as evidence
- A journal found with Jayvon’s body (contents unknown)
- Body camera footage from Officer Alvidrez, confirmed in the report as “Yes – Video Footage Available – evidence.com”
- OMI examination notes that have not been released
The Field Investigator report notes that Officer A. Torrez collected “metal chain/carabiner” and “a journal and pair of eyeglasses” as evidence. All of these items remain in police custody. The OMI investigator also “uploaded 39 photographs into evidence.com.”
Why has none of this evidence been made public? What is in that journal? What do those 39 photos show? What did the body camera capture?
When The Defender asked Walker if she had been able to access any of this evidence, she said the family has been stonewalled at every turn.
A Police Department With a History of Racist Brutality
The Albuquerque Police Department has a well-documented history of vicious brutality, coverups, and constitutional violations. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice found a pattern of unconstitutional use of deadly force by APD officers. The city entered into a consent decree requiring “reforms”—reforms that are ongoing more than a decade later.
This case reveals how that culture of impunity extends to death investigations. When a Black man is found hanged, the default assumption is suicide. The investigation—if you can even call it that—seems designed to confirm that assumption, not test it.
No interviews with shelter staff who saw Jayvon in his final weeks. No canvassing of the commercial area where he was found. No analysis of his phone records or financial transactions in those crucial twenty days between August 28 and September 17. No outreach to family members who might provide context about his mental state or any threats he faced.
Just a classification, a cremation, and a case filed away.
The officer’s report even misspelled Jayvon’s middle name—a detail so fundamental that its error speaks to the level of care applied to this investigation. They couldn’t even get his name right before they burned his body.
“I Want Justice for My Cousin”
For Jada Walker and Jayvon’s family, the cremation feels like a final violation—the destruction of evidence, the elimination of any possibility that an independent pathologist might examine his body and reach a different conclusion.
“We were really upset that there wasn’t an autopsy done or anything in that nature,” Walker said.
She is clear about what she wants now: “I don’t care who’s uncomfortable. I don’t care. I want justice for my cousin.”
Walker says Jayvon’s biological sister is also standing with her demanding answers. Other family members are joining the call for an independent investigation.
“We know he did not do that,” Walker said, speaking for the family’s collective certainty. “And we were really upset that it wasn’t an autopsy done.”
What Happens Next
At 6:00 PM on Monday, October 6, 2025, organizers will gather outside the Albuquerque Police Department headquarters at 400 Roma Ave NW to demand accountability. The press conference, convened by Building Power for Black New Mexico, Millions for Prisoners New Mexico, Albuquerque Save the Kids, and the SouthWest Solidarity Network, will call for an immediate independent investigation.
“Jayvon’s life mattered. His family deserves truth. And Black New Mexico will not rest until justice is done,” the organizers’ statement concludes.
The Defender will continue investigating this case and pushing for the release of all evidence. We will not let Jayvon Givan become another name buried in a closed case file, another Black man whose suspicious death is explained away as “suicide” by a police department with no interest in the truth.
If you have information about Jayvon Givan’s time in Albuquerque, his activities in August and September 2024, or any interactions he had with Albuquerque police, please contact me at ryan@kansascitydefender.com.
This is a developing story. The Defender will update as new information becomes available from tonight’s press conference and ongoing investigation.
