Family says Black woman found hanging in Jackson did not kill herself

An alleged person of interest in the death investigation of Tasia Fortune was arrested on an unrelated charge Aug. 8, days after the 29-year-old Black woman was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home in Jackson, Mississippi. Fortune’s family has said the mother of two did not kill herself.

The Hinds County Coroner’s Office identified Fortune as the woman found Aug. 3, and Jackson police said the investigation remained ongoing. Authorities had not publicly released a cause or manner of death as investigators waited for autopsy results and continued examining the circumstances surrounding her death.

Fortune’s mother, Diane Nelson, has rejected any suggestion that her daughter took her own life. “Every time I wake up I just see her face,” Nelson said. “That was my baby so I wouldn't wish this on nobody.” Nelson also said Fortune “did not do this to herself.” Family members described Fortune as a devoted mother to two children and said there had been no sign she was suicidal.

The case quickly drew national attention and online calls for answers, reflecting a familiar and painful distrust around how deaths involving Black women are handled. In Jackson, councilman Jeramiah Howard urged the U.S. Attorney’s Office to help examine the case, pointing to the need for transparency and the historical context surrounding the death of a Black woman found hanging in Mississippi.

For Fortune’s relatives and the community now watching the case, the central question remains how investigators document the scene, preserve the evidence and explain the ruling with the same rigor expected in any suspicious death. Until those questions are answered, the silence around her death will continue to shape public confidence in the process.