A Jackson councilman has sought federal assistance as authorities investigate the 29-year-old woman’s death and await autopsy findings.
JACKSON, Miss. — The death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman found hanging from a tree behind a vacant Jackson home, is drawing calls for a transparent investigation as local authorities release few details and a city councilman asks federal prosecutors for assistance.
Jackson police found Fortune’s body Aug. 3 in the backyard of a home on Road of Remembrance. The Hinds County Coroner’s Office later identified her, and the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. Police have said the investigation remains active but have not publicly classified Fortune’s death as suspicious, a homicide or a suicide.
Ward 3 City Councilman Kenneth Stokes asked U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger’s office for assistance in a letter sent after the body was discovered. Stokes used stronger language than investigators have, referring in the letter to the woman as a murder victim before authorities had announced a cause or manner of death. No federal involvement in the investigation had been publicly confirmed as of Tuesday.
The lack of an official finding has become especially important as speculation about Fortune’s death spreads beyond Jackson. Her mother, Christy Spivey, has said she does not believe Fortune took her own life. At the same time, authorities have released no evidence establishing that another person killed her. The distinction remains critical while the medical examiner and police continue their work.
Fortune’s death has drawn additional attention because two other people were found hanging from trees in Mississippi within the past year. In September 2025, 21-year-old Delta State University student Trey Reed, who was Black, was found hanging from a tree on the university’s campus in Cleveland. Authorities concluded Reed died by suicide, and an autopsy was consistent with an earlier examination that found no evidence of foul play.
On the same day Reed was found, Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s, was found hanging from a tree in Vicksburg. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner determined that Zukatis also died by suicide. The circumstances and official findings in those cases do not establish anything about Fortune’s death, which remains separately under investigation.
The cases nevertheless have added to public attention surrounding death investigations in a state with a long history of racial violence. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., urged people not to rush to conclusions about Fortune’s death while also acknowledging the fear such circumstances can produce. She said Mississippi’s history makes transparency and a thorough search for the truth especially important.
Fortune’s mother has indicated that she does not want speculation about a racial motive attached to her daughter’s death without evidence. Spivey instead has focused publicly on seeking answers about what happened to her daughter. She last saw Fortune on July 26 during a family reunion in Kentucky and said Fortune appeared peaceful and in better spirits than she had seen her in some time.
Investigators also have interviewed a man who acknowledged arguing with Fortune before her death, according to local reporting. The man denied any involvement and was later arrested on an unrelated charge involving possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police have not publicly named him as a suspect in Fortune’s death, and the unrelated charge does not establish responsibility for her death.
The autopsy remains one of the most important unresolved parts of the investigation. Its findings could help authorities determine whether Fortune’s death resulted from suicide, homicide or another circumstance. Police have not announced when they expect to provide additional information, and no one has been criminally charged in connection with her death.
For now, the investigation remains open, the medical cause and manner of Fortune’s death have not been released, and the request for federal assistance has not produced a publicly announced federal role in the case.
Author note: Last updated August 11, 2026.