Overview
- Police discovered 29-year-old Tasia Fortune hanging behind a vacant house in Jackson on Aug. 3 and the Hinds County coroner later identified her.
- Fortune’s body was transferred to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy that officials say will determine cause and manner of death.
- Family members say they do not believe Fortune died by suicide and have publicly pressed investigators for answers as the probe remains active.
- Local reporting names a 65-year-old man who was interviewed by detectives and later arrested on an unrelated weapons charge; police have not charged anyone in Fortune’s death.
- City leaders and residents, noting two other recent tree-hanging deaths in Mississippi, have demanded transparency and one councilman has asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to consider assistance.