Family of slain McComb man mourns, seeks closure

MCCOMB — Cort Gatlin was the youngest of six children. Even though he was 29, his family still refers to him as "the baby."

Gatlin went missing on his birthday and was found in the Bogue Chitto River just south of Alford's Bridge, beaten, taped up, and shot on his brother's birthday.

"Those two days are devastating in our hearts now," said Florence Gatlin, Cort's mother.

Cort was the kind of guy who was always smiling, and would do anything to make and keep friends, his family said.

Cort's brother Edward Gatlin said his little brother broke one of his wrenches at the job where they work about a month ago. When pay time came, Cort told Edward, "Just give me $25."

That's all he wanted for a week's work because he felt so bad for breaking his big brother's wrench. That was Cort.

"His big smile and his giving heart... whatever he had, he'd give it to you," Florence said, remembering her youngest son. "He had three babies and he loved them, and he kept a big smile on his face.  Anything you asked him, he'd do for you. He'd give before he'd take and if he was hurt, he had that smile so you never knew."

His family now wonders if it was that willingness to please and desire to make people like him that put Cort in a situation with people he considered friends who would turn on him, and possibly kill him.

Edward said he knew when his brother went missing that something terrible had happened to him. He felt certain that his brother was in the water, so he took to the roads, visiting bridges all around Pike County. There was one place that drew him.

He went back not once, not twice, but five times. On  the fifth time he went with a pastor friend and under the bridge they prayed that God would just let Cort's body be found. Then they headed back to the car.

"Before we got to the top of the bridge, they called to let us know they had the body. It was in the same water and it was one bridge over from where we were," Edward said.

On Tuesday, he and Florence went back to Alford's Bridge. They stood by the big orange X on the road that marked where Cort died and wondered things aloud.

"That sheet with the blood was down there by that log. I wonder why they moved it?" "Do you think there should be blood spatter on the bridge?"

As they stood there, Edward's phone rang. It was a friend calling to tell him where one of the suspects who is still on the loose is believed to be. He said it was those very kinds of calls that fueled his search for his brother until he was found.

"I'd like to thank the people in the community for the information they released to us," he said. "God was using people and it was getting to us, and I knew that I had to go out and search for him, because faith without works is dead."

Edward Gatlin's search brought him face-to-face with Anthony Dauden, one of the men accused in Cort's death.

"There was maybe a whole solid minute of silence with him facing the other direction, not looking at us. So after I came to my senses I walked in front of him and I said, 'Man, you know why we're here. You know where my brother's body is, and you know who had something to do with it, and I'm not going to leave until you give me some information,'" he said.

Dauden gave him some names. Edward wasn't sure he believed him, but he left. Later on, he said, he found that those names were not involved in the case.

It was tough seeing Dauden and his girlfriend Bridget Dillon at their initial appearance Tuesday, and hearing of their seemingly low $500,000 bond on murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges.

"That's my baby, I'm still hurting. I'm angry to see them, there's no remorse out of them, and to hear the details of how they dumped my son... it's the first time I'd heard it from his mouth, what they did to my son," said Florence. "The shooting of his head like that, and they had beat him before he got there, his hands tied up and his mouth taped, he couldn't even defend himself."

The family will also never get the last image of their son and brother out of their minds. They had to identify his body, and the only way they knew for sure it was him after days in the river was that he had his daughter's name tattooed on his arm.

"I hope they never rest, I hope they see my son's face every day after what they've done to him," Florence said.

The criminal affidavit read at Dauden and Dillon's initial appearance states that Dauden told authorities that they and Jeremy McElvin and Exzavier Reed had killed Gatlin because they believed he had molested a child. Edward said Gatlin was taken in weeks ago for questioning and he was never arrested. The Pike County Sheriff's Department refers questions on it to McComb Police Department. No charges have been brought against Gatlin by either agency.

"It came up as a rumor, and we knew they talked to Cort. It happened three or four weeks prior to it, if that was so, why was he on the street? Why wasn't he behind  bars? So we know that wasn't  factual," Edward said.

Police are still searching for Reed and McElvin, though the car believed to be the one they transported Gatlin to the bridge in has been recovered. Both Edward and Florence implored them to turn themselves in.

They also implored the community to keep praying.

"We know prayer changes things, we believe that. We know prayer works and it works in a way that is more helpful to your soul than anything else," Edward said.

There is a vigil planned for Cort on Thursday at 7 p.m. on Summit Street.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.