according to carolyn bryant, the wife of the proprietor, the one who ran the store, emmet till alone in the store with her comes on to her. and whistles at her. >> four days later, bryant's gun toting husband and brother-in-law went looking for the boy at his uncle's house. >> and mos wright begs him to leave him alone, please don't take him. but they take him and he never returns. he's thrown into the tallahatchie river with a 70 pound cotton gin fan attached to his neck with a barbed wire. >> a few days later, a boy fishing in the river discovered a body beaten beyond recognition. >> the body was so badly damaged, we couldn't hardly tell who he was, but he happened to have on a ring with initials. >> in chicago, emmet till's grief-stricken mother mamie waited at the railroad station for the casket containing her son's body to arrive. >> mamie till is essentially confronted with a sealed wooden casket nailed shut by the sheriff, it was mamie till who demanded that that box be opened so that she could see her child. she kind of staggers in and sees this body, and she can't believe her