Key Facts

• Tasia Fortune’s body was found on August 3, hanging from a tree near an abandoned home in Mississippi.
• The Jackson Police Department is treating her death as a homicide since the investigation began.
• The autopsy was done four weeks ago, but police have not received the results yet.
• Fortune was a mother of four and had lived in Mississippi for over ten years.
• Authorities have identified a person of interest who was arrested on an unrelated gun charge.
• This is the third case in Mississippi in under a year where someone was found dead hanging from a tree.
• There is growing concern and calls for a federal investigation into these deaths and the handling of cases involving people of color.
• Over 50,000 people signed a petition calling for an independent review of Mississippi’s Chief Medical Examiner due to mistrust in how cases involving people of color have been handled.