Arrest made over the death of black woman found hanged from tree
Tasia Fortune's body was found in the lot of an abandoned home in Mississippi in August.
Arrest made over the death of black woman found hanged from tree
Police in Mississippi have made their first arrest in the case of a black woman found dead and hanged from a tree, and say more people could soon be taken into custody.
Tasia Fortune’s body was discovered in the lot of an abandoned house in Jackson in August, but police did not announce until earlier this week that they were treating her death as a possible homicide.
“That arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion,” Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said on Friday. “This case remains active.”
Fortune’s death has alarmed residents in Jackson, a majority-black city in a state with a history of racial violence and lynching.
At Friday’s news conference, Brackney said the medical examiner had confirmed Fortune’s cause of death was homicide, adding that a suspected killer would face a murder charge.
Police had arrested one man and “additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence,” she said, adding that investigators had interviewed 15 people in the case.
Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC that she cried when police called to update her about the arrest, saying: “I guess I do feel like a little sigh of relief...like a little bit of peace just come over me.”
“I just hope that they’ve got the right person,” she added.
The arrest of a suspect came after weeks of what Spivey and Jackson residents described as relative silence and inaction from local officials.
Along with the grim circumstances of Fortune’s death and Mississippi’s history of racial lynchings, the lack of information about the case had left the community shocked and fearful.
Spivey previously told the BBC she had tried contacting Jackson police several times over the past two weeks, leaving multiple voicemails, and had not received a response.
Brackney addressed the family’s frustration on Friday, saying: “We have been in constant contact with the mother and the stepfather, as well as the biological father, throughout this case.”
A letter Spivey wrote to officials about the limited communication and the pace of the investigation was read at a public city meeting on Tuesday - the same day Jackson police announced the possible homicide.
“I’m kind of like in awe,” Spivey said. “Like, I can’t believe it. That was quick.”
Fortune’s death has been described by a member of the US Congress as part of a pattern of “possible modern-day lynchings”.
This week, more than 50 members of Congress sent a letter, external to the FBI and justice department, saying they were “extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in numerous states” and calling for an independent investigation into suspicious deaths of black Americans.
So far this year there have been at least 10 reported hangings of black people in the US, they said, adding that more than 70 lynchings have been documented between 2000 and 2025.