Black man’s death ruled a homicide after exhumation

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – The case of a Black man who died following a party in rural Kansas more than 16 years ago has been ruled a homicide after his body was exhumed as federal authorities investigate his death as a possible hate crime.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday that a new autopsy on the body of Alonzo Brooks concluded the cause of death was homicide.

His body was exhumed last year from a Topeka cemetery and transported to Dover Air Force Base for an examination.

Brooks was 23 when he disappeared after attending a party near La Cynge, Kansas, in May 2004.

His family later found his body in a creek near where the party was held. The FBI reopened the investigation in 2019.