Jackson Police Probe Tasia Fortune's Death as Potential Homicide 5 Weeks After Tree Hanging
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Sep 9
Jackson Police Probe Tasia Fortune's Death as Potential Homicide 5 Weeks After Tree Hanging
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Sep 9
Summary
Jackson police said for the first time Tuesday that they have treated 29-year-old Tasia Fortune's death as a potential homicide since her body was found hanging from a tree on 3 August.
Police Chief RaShall Brackney said the department uses that approach in pending death cases to preserve evidence, while the medical examiner still has not issued an official cause or manner of death.
More than a month of limited public updates has fueled anger from Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, and wider demands for transparency in Jackson, a majority-Black city unsettled by Mississippi's history of racial violence.
More than 50,000 people have signed petitions seeking an FBI inquiry and scrutiny of the state medical examiner, while a city councilman and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett have separately pressed for federal intervention.
Fortune's case is the third Mississippi hanging death in less than a year, and the uncertainty has heightened fears on and around Jackson State University that similar cases involving Black Americans could be recurring.