Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told the City Council Tuesday that the department is investigating the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune as a homicide but has not received the autopsy results. Brackney said the autopsy was completed “four weeks ago,” but “to date, we have not received the outcomes of that autopsy.”
Fortune’s body was found in early August hanging from a tree behind a vacant house in the 500 block of Road of Remembrance in west Jackson, in a mostly Black neighborhood. The manner in which she was found — a Black woman hanging in a place with a history of racial terror lynchings — drew national attention, council members said. “The Jackson Police Department has been investigating this case from day one as a homicide until we hear otherwise from the medical examiner’s office,” Brackney said.
Brackney made her remarks in response to Councilman Kenneth Stokes and a letter from Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey of Kentucky, which was read aloud during the meeting. In the letter, Spivey wrote, “I will travel to Jackson so my voice is heard. I will attend anything I need to attend,” council members said. Brackney said investigators have been in constant contact with Spivey and her estranged husband.
Authorities have identified a person of interest who was arrested on an unrelated gun charge, officials said. Spivey previously told Mississippi Today she believes her daughter was killed but was not the victim of a hate crime and has insisted Fortune was not suicidal. Stokes has written to U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger and U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith requesting federal assistance and called for answers at a recent press conference outside City Hall, he said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
