WASHINGTON: The U.S. Justice Department told relatives of Emmett Till on Monday that it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.

A person familiar with the matter informed The Associated Press about the closure of the investigation and the meeting with Till’s family. The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The killing galvanized the civil rights movement after Tills mother insisted on an open casket, and Jet magazine published photos of his brutalized body.

Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, an an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed in a paid interview with Look magazine.

The Justice Department in 2004 opened an investigation of Tills killing after it received inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living. The department said the statute of limitations had run out on any potential federal crime, but the FBI worked with state investigators to determine if state charges could be brought. In February 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone, and the Justice Department announced it was closing the case.