Arrest made over the death of black woman found hanged from tree

Arrest made in Jackson, Mississippi, in connection with the death of a Black woman found hanged from a tree. "That apprehension contiguous is an important improvement successful this investigation, but it is not the conclusion," Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said connected Friday. "This lawsuit remains active." The woman’s body was discovered on 3 August hanging from a tree in the lot of an abandoned property off Road of Remembrance. Authorities said the remains showed various states of decomposition. After weeks of describing the inquiry as an ongoing investigation, police announced on Tuesday that they were treating the death as a possible homicide. On Thursday the medical examiner confirmed that the cause of death was homicide, stating that a suspected perpetrator would face murder charges. Police have arrested one male. "additional arrests volition beryllium pending arsenic our investigators proceed to travel the evidence", she said. They have interviewed 15 individuals in the case. Christy Spivey, the mother of the deceased, identified as Tasia Fortune, told the BBC that she cried when police called on Friday to update her on the arrest. "I conjecture I bash consciousness similar a small suspiration of relief," Spivey said. "Like a small spot of bid conscionable travel implicit me." She added, "I conscionable anticipation that they've got the close person." Spivey also said, "I autumn asleep, but I can't enactment asleep." Spivey said she had tried contacting Jackson police repeatedly over the past two weeks, leaving multiple voicemails without response. Brackney addressed the family’s frustration on Friday, stating: "We person been successful changeless interaction with the parent and the stepfather, arsenic good arsenic the biologic father, passim this case." A letter Spivey wrote to officials concerning the limited communication and pace of the investigation was read during a nationalist city gathering on Tuesday. After the reading, police issued the possible‑homicide announcement. Spivey remarked, "I'm benignant of similar successful awe," Spivey said. "Like, I can't judge it. That was quick." The death has been characterised by a member of the U.S. Congress as part of a pattern of "possible modern‑day lynchings." This week more than 50 members of Congress sent a letter to the FBI and the Department of Justice, saying they were "extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in many states" and urging an independent probe into suspicious deaths of Black Americans. The letter noted that at least 10 such hangings have been reported this year and that more than 70 lynchings were documented between 2000 and 2025.