A group of white vigilantes, who had become a mob by this time, seized Sam Carter, a local blacksmith and teamster who worked in a turpentine still. They tortured Carter into admitting that he had hidden the escaped chain gang prisoner. Carter led the group to the spot in the woods where he said he had taken Hunter, but the dogs were unable to pick up a scent. To the surprise of many witnesses, someone fatally shot Carter in the face. The group hung Carter's mutilated body from a tree as a symbol to other black men in the area. Some in the mob took souvenirs of his clothes. Survivors suggest that Taylor's lover fled to Rosewood because he knew he was in trouble and had gone to the home of Aaron Carrier, a fellow veteran and Mason. Carrier and Carter, another Mason, covered the fugitive in the back of a wagon. Carter took him to a nearby river, let him out of the wagon, then returned home to be met by the mob, who was led by dogs following the fugitive's scent.