Family calls for reopening 1985 suspicious Concord suicide case

CONCORD, Calif. - 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 advocates want the case reopened.  

Lee, a 23-year-old Black and Native American gay man, was found hanging from a fig tree near the Concord BART station on Nov. 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 Concord Police Department's destruction of evidence 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, director of Graphology Consultants International, said the note didn't match Lee's usual style. 

Frank Sterling, Lee's cousin and memorial walk organizer, said if Lee did write the note himself, he possibly had written it under duress and intentionally misspelled names so his family would know something wasn't right.   

"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 signal something," Sterling said, adding that even though it's been 39 years, he is gathering signatures on a petition. Once it reaches at least 500, he and other advocates will present the request to California Attorney General Rob Bonta in hopes that his office will reopen the investigation.   

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

What happened that night in 1985 shook the community and was widely reported in various local media outlets with many of the clippings compiled in the FBI's files on the case.   

On the Friday evening before his early Saturday morning death, 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 was unable to take a train back since the system had closed. He reached out to his friend Joyce Carter, who said he called her just after 1 a.m. from a payphone to ask for a ride, but she couldn't provide one.   

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

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

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

Hannum's affidavit detailed her account of emerging from her home after hearing the screams to witness a group of people, including a person who appeared to be in uniform.   

"It seemed someone was writing something while leaning over a car hood while the others gathered around," Hannum wrote. "I had only a second to glimpse this when the uniformed person became aware of me. He or she spun around when she saw me, yelled some shocked words and started running toward me as if intent on giving chase. I immediately turned around and rushed back to the house and locked the door."   

The affidavit also alleged that Hannum had received threatening phone calls after the death.   Sterling referenced an article by the Contra Costa Times in 1977, which covered 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 are the same office and determine causes of death.   Though he was young when his cousin died, Sterling said it's important to continue advocating for the reopening of the case.   

"We're the last generation of family who can hold these people accountable," he continued. "If the people that killed Timmy were around his age, they could still be alive in their mid- to late 60s, early 70s, in Concord, hanging around with their grandchildren, living their life while Timmy's family passed away young and died of stress."   

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