Mississippi police investigate death of Black woman, found hanging from tree, as a homicide密西西比州警方正在调查一名黑人女子的死亡案件，该女子被发现吊死在树上，警方已将此案定性为凶杀案。
Jackson, Mississippi, police are investigating the death of Tasia Fortune as a homicide after the 29-year-old Black woman was found hanging from a tree outside an abandoned house last month, the city’s police chief said Tuesday.
Jackson, Mississippi, police are investigating the death of Tasia Fortune as a homicide after the 29-year-old Black woman was found hanging from a tree outside an abandoned house last month, the city’s police chief said Tuesday.
“Jackson Police Department has been investigating this case from day one as a homicide, until we hear otherwise from the medical examiner’s office,” Chief RaShall Brackney said at a city council meeting .
Police had previously categorized the case as a “ death pending investigation .”
With the autopsy results pending, Fortune’s family is demanding answers and local officials are questioning the circumstances surrounding the case.
The scrutiny is unfolding against Mississippi’s long history of racial violence involving hangings and follows other recent hanging deaths in the state that authorities ruled were suicides.
“We need to pursue (Fortune’s) investigation to its final conclusion and whatever the results, we need to address those results,” Jackson City Council President Vernon Hartley said.
The police chief addressed the city council after a letter written by Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, was read aloud at the meeting.
“I have no more answers from one day of this investigation,” Spivey wrote. “The detectives are like they are on a prerecorded message, just saying the same thing over and over. And now it’s gone to silence.”
On Thursday, Spivey said in a post on the family’s GoFundMe page that she had asked Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes for help “because of the silence and rudeness of Jackson Police Department.”
“Thanks to him putting Tasia’s case on for the council meeting Jackson Police department finally came out and admitted that they were treating this as a homicide which I had already known that but the public didn’t personally know,” Spivey wrote.
Investigators have remained in regular contact with Spivey and her husband, but are awaiting the ruling from the medical examiner’s office, Brackney said.
CNN has reached out to Spivey for comment.
Black woman discovered hanging from tree
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Fortune on August 11 , but police have not yet received the results, Brackney told the council.
The chief said she had been in contact with the director of the medical examiner’s office as well as the commissioner who oversees it but has not been able to get a ruling on the cause and manner of Fortune’s death.
CNN has reached out to the medical examiner’s office for more information.
From Tucker Funeral Home
There have been no arrests made in relation to Fortune’s death, police told CNN in August, but the father of one of Fortune’s children was arrested shortly after the discovery of her body on unrelated weapons charges. He is still in custody, jail records show.
Fortune’s “children have their future secured” as the family continues “working on justice,” Spivey said in the GoFundMe post.
Brackney warned people not to jump to conclusions before all the results are in.
“There is a lot of misinformation out there about this case and other ones,” she said.
A Mississippi woman found hanging in a tree was laid to rest this weekend. Here’s the latest
Stokes called for answers, especially considering the violent history of race relations in Mississippi and several other hangings in the state.
The investigation into Fortune’s death comes less than a year after the hanging deaths of 21-year-old Trey Reed , a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s, in Vicksburg, according to The Associated Press . Both deaths were determined by authorities to be suicides.
“Hanging is an ugly, ugly part of our past that we never, ever want to come back again,” Stokes said at the city council meeting.
The council member also told CNN affiliate WLBT the delay in answers about Fortune’s death raises questions about the investigation.
“It sends the message that you’re trying to hide something, and we do not need to hide anything in the state of Mississippi. We want the world to know we’re open and above board,” he said.
密西西比州杰克逊市警察局长周二表示，该市警方正在调查塔西亚·福琼的死亡事件，并将其定性为谋杀案。这位29岁的黑人女性上个月被发现吊死在一栋废弃房屋外的树上。
“杰克逊警察局从一开始就将此案作为凶杀案进行调查，直到我们从法医办公室得到其他结果为止，”局长拉沙尔·布拉克尼在市议会会议上说。
警方此前已将此案归类为“死亡待查”。
在尸检结果尚未公布之际，福琼的家人要求得到答案，当地官员也对案件的来龙去脉提出质疑。
此次审查针对的是密西西比州长期存在的种族暴力历史，其中包括绞刑。此前，该州还发生过其他一些绞刑死亡事件，当局裁定这些死亡事件为自杀。
“我们需要将（《财富》杂志的）调查进行到底，无论结果如何，我们都需要应对这些结果，”杰克逊市议会主席弗农·哈特利说。
在市议会会议上，宣读了福琼的母亲克里斯蒂·斯派维写的一封信后，警察局长向市议会发表了讲话。
“经过一天的调查，我仍然没有得到任何答案，”斯派维写道。“侦探们就像在念预先录制好的语音信息，一遍又一遍地重复着同样的话。现在，一切都陷入了沉默。”
周四，斯派维在家人的 GoFundMe 页面上发帖称，她已向杰克逊市议员肯尼斯·斯托克斯寻求帮助，“因为杰克逊警察局保持沉默且态度粗鲁”。
“多亏他把塔西亚的案子提交给市议会，杰克逊警察局终于承认他们正在将此案作为凶杀案处理，虽然我之前已经知道这一点，但公众并不知情，”斯派维写道。
布拉克尼表示，调查人员一直与斯派维及其丈夫保持定期联系，但仍在等待法医办公室的裁决。
CNN已联系斯派维寻求置评。
一名黑人女子被发现吊死在树上
布拉克尼告诉市议会，密西西比州法医办公室于 8 月 11 日对福琼进行了尸检，但警方尚未收到结果。
警长表示，她已经联系了法医办公室主任以及负责监督该办公室的专员，但尚未得到关于福琼死亡原因和方式的裁定。
CNN已联系法医办公室以获取更多信息。
来自塔克殡仪馆
警方8月份告诉CNN，目前尚未有人因福琼的死而被捕，但福琼其中一个孩子的父亲在她尸体被发现后不久因与此无关的武器指控被捕。监狱记录显示，他目前仍被拘留。
Spivey 在 GoFundMe 帖子中表示，Fortune 的“孩子们的未来得到了保障”，因为这个家庭将继续“为正义而努力”。
布拉克尼警告人们不要在所有结果出来之前妄下结论。
“关于这个案件和其他一些案件，有很多错误信息流传开来，”她说。
本周末，一名被发现吊死在树上的密西西比州女子下葬。以下是最新消息。
斯托克斯要求给出解释，尤其考虑到密西西比州种族关系的暴力历史以及该州发生的几起绞刑事件。
对福琼之死的调查距离克利夫兰三角洲州立大学21岁的黑人学生特雷·里德和维克斯堡30多岁的无家可归白人男子科里·祖卡蒂斯的上吊死亡事件不到一年，据美联社报道。这两起死亡事件均被当局认定为自杀。
“绞刑是我们过去一段丑陋不堪的历史，我们永远、永远都不想重蹈覆辙，”斯托克斯在市议会会议上说道。
该议员还告诉 CNN 附属电视台 WLBT，迟迟没有对福琼的死因作出答复，这让人对调查产生质疑。
他说：“这会给人一种你在试图隐瞒什么的错觉，而密西西比州根本不需要隐瞒任何事情。我们希望全世界都知道我们是公开透明、光明磊落的。”