Family Schedules Nov. 15 Concord Tribute Seeking Reopened 1985 Case

Forty-one years after 23-year-old Timothy Charles Lee was found hanging from a fig tree outside the Concord BART station, his family and community advocates are preparing an annual tribute and walk in downtown Concord on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. while urging authorities to reopen the 1985 death investigation, according to Contra Costa Pulse.

Lee—a Black, gay member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians and a fashion design student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco who was preparing to study in Milan—missed his stop on a BART train on the night of Nov. 2, 1985, and woke up at the Concord station. After calling for a ride that never arrived, he was found hanging from a fig tree outside the station with a noose around his neck in a death that authorities quickly ruled a suicide.

Eyewitness Affidavit and Calls to Re-Examine the 1985 Ruling

Lee’s first cousin, Frank Sterling, who was 12 years old when Lee died, began investigating the case decades later after hearing a KPFA Radio report in Berkeley referencing a well-dressed man found hanging outside the Concord BART station.

“I read one affidavit that really struck me,” Sterling told American Community Media and Contra Costa Pulse. “An eyewitness said that there was a group of young men surrounding a young man that I believe was Timmy, and a uniformed officer close by.”

Sterling noted that if the individuals described by the eyewitness were close to Lee’s age in 1985, they would now be in their 60s. “If I can get some living people held accountable, that’s my ultimate goal. If not, I want to keep Timmy’s name alive and remember that his story is a part of Concord history,” Sterling said.

National Context and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Advocacy

The push to reopen Lee’s case comes amid broader national scrutiny of hanging deaths ruled suicides. In its 2026 report A Crimson Record, the civil rights organization JULIAN documented roughly 70 suspected modern-day lynchings of Black people across southern states between 2000 and 2025. In September, 38 members of Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding a federal investigation into a series of hangings of Black people across multiple states.

Sterling, who started the annual “Justice for Timothy” walk outside the Concord station five years ago, is also calling for Lee’s death to be investigated as a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) case. Lee is buried on the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians reservation in Valley Center, north of San Diego.

Earlier this year, Sterling and the Justice for Timothy Lee Coalition organized a “Living Timmy’s Dream” fashion show in nearby Walnut Creek that raised funds for Concord’s Rainbow Community Center, which serves LGBTQ+ youth and young adults blocks from the station. Documentary filmmaker Maria Judice is also producing a film examining Lee’s life and the campaign to reopen the case, and Indigenous Youth Voices executive director Lynnette Grey Bull urged community members and allies to collectively press elected officials for action ahead of the Nov. 15 gathering in downtown Concord.