Mother insists on answers weeks after her daughter’s death
Christy Spivey, who lives in Kentucky, has been watching a police investigation unfold for over a month with little clarity. Her daughter, Tasia Fortune, 29, was discovered on 3 August hanging from a tree in a lot in Jackson, Mississippi. The case slowly moved from a simple death investigation to a potential homicide as police confirmed it on Tuesday, still awaiting the medical examiner’s findings.
Spivey’s anger has spread through a predominantly Black city that is shaking at the specter of the state’s painful history of racial violence. Tens of thousands of residents signed an online petition demanding a transparent investigation and has urged members of Congress to bring federal oversight to the tragedy.
Police Chief RaShall Brackney said the department treats any pending death case as a potential homicide to preserve evidence while awaiting official results. The medical examiner’s office, however, has refused to comment on a pending case.
Spivey first saw her daughter alive on 26 July in Kentucky during a family reunion and last saw her in a funeral home before the burial. She describes that her visit to a funeral was emotionally wrenching, noting she could not look straight at her daughter, who was bearing a heavy loss.
Fortune’s death is the third in Mississippi this year where someone was found hanging from a tree. The other two cases were initially ruled a suicide, yet mothers and communities are still uneasy about the investigations. The latest incident has prompted 50,000+ signatures on a petition for an independent review of the state’s chief medical examiner and a separate appeal to the FBI.
After petitions circulated, Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes formally requested federal assistance from the Mississippi U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI. He states he has yet to receive a reply, fearing the agency has no interest in the matter.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has also written to the Department of Justice, calling for federal intervention and labeling the cases within the state as possible modern-day lynchings, echoing the state’s painful historical reputation for violent terrorism against Black Americans.
Across the country, there have been additional cases where Black Americans were found hanged from trees, including four in North Carolina this year alone, with three ruled as suicides while the fourth remains pending an autopsy.
Meanwhile, at Jackson State University, NAACP president Brandon King says the cluster of these tragedies makes campus residents wary. “We feel unsafe,” King says, underscoring that the capital should be the safest place for Black students.
Spivey, who initially wanted a cremation, ultimately opted for burial. She holds hope that the investigation’s outcome might bring the need to exhume, which could provide the closure she has been chasing for months.
