Police in Mississippi have revealed that Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman found hanged in a tree in Jackson last month, was already dead before her body was placed there.
Detective Samuel Dukes told a Jackson court that officers believe the death was part of a "staged" lynching. Police suspect Fortune was killed in a drugs-related dispute. Her cause of death has not been released, but officials have ruled it a homicide.
Arrests and charges
Jackson police arrested three men in connection with the death, and they were later charged with murder. Eric Clark, 45, turned himself in on Friday and was also charged with murder; he is due in court on September 28. Earnest Lloyd Jr, 25, was apprehended earlier this week. Jarques Ratcliff, 51, remains in custody without bond and has pleaded not guilty. All men arrested are Black.
Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC that the coroner said they were "not treating this as actual hanging," and that her daughter was dead before being placed in the tree.
Family's response
Speaking outside the Jackson Police Department, Spivey said she believed her daughter fought for her life in the moments before her death. "I know she did. I know my daughter...I just hope they have the right people," she said.
Spivey added that Fortune had struggled with homelessness in recent years and was unsure where she was living at the time of her death. She said Fortune had spoken about starting a cleaning business and getting her life back on track.
The case drew widespread concern across the state and beyond because of the history of lynching in the US. Historical organisations have recorded thousands of lynching cases across the American south from the end of the Civil War until the end of World War II.
Fortune leaves behind four children, aged seven, five, four and one.
