Black Woman Found Hanging in Tree in Mississippi Has Been Identified as Tasia Fortune

This story was originally published in the Mississippi Free Press, a nonprofit journalism multimedia network reporting on the causes of and solutions to the social, political, and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities.

The woman whose body was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant Jackson, Mississippi, home is 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, the Hinds County Coroner’s Office said on Thursday. Authorities have not said whether or not they suspect foul play.

The Jackson Police Department first announced in a statement on Monday evening that officers “located the body of an unidentified Black female” at the 500 block of Road of Remembrance, a mostly Black neighborhood, at 9:05 that night. Neighbors in the mostly Black Jackson neighborhood contacted police after finding her body, though it is not clear how long it had been there.

Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard, who publicly identified the body as Tasia Fortune on Thursday, said earlier this week that the body would be transported to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office to perform an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.

Fortune’s aunt, Etta Avolio, started a GoFundMe to help raise funds to cover burial expenses and final arrangements. The GoFundMe, which has a $3,000 goal, had raised over $1,600 as of Thursday evening. Avolio confirmed the fundraiser’s legitimacy to the Mississippi Free Press.

“Tasia Fortune was a beloved daughter, sister, and friend whose passing has left her family devastated and heartbroken,” Avolio’s fundraiser says. “During this lifetime, families go through ups and downs, and right now Tasia’s loved ones are facing one of the hardest moments they have ever known. Tasia was a strong-minded, big-hearted, vibrant young woman whose life was taken at just twenty-nine years old. Her loss has deeply shaken everyone who knew and loved her, and her family is now trying to begin healing while also facing the painful responsibility of saying their final farewells.”

“The family also wants others to know that justice will be served, and they hold firmly to their faith, believing that God is on their side as they walk through this heartbreaking loss,” Fortune’s aunt adds.

Ward 3 Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger’s office on Wednesday asking for assistance, WLBT reported.

Mississippi authorities have investigated other high-profile cases involving tree-hanging deaths in the past year.

In September 2025, a group of student athletes found 18-year-old Delta State University student Trey Reed, who was Black, hanging from a tree on the campus in Cleveland, Mississippi. His death raised fears of a racially motivated murder, considering the history of hundreds of lynchings of Black men that occurred in Mississippi in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Ben Crump, the attorney who represented Reed’s family, cast doubt on the official ruling that Reed’s death was a suicide and helped obtain an independent autopsy. Last week, the Mississippi Free Press reported for the first time that Reed’s family said his girlfriend had received text messages from his phone the night before his body was found in which he threatened to hang himself. The family still has questions, though. They said they are waiting on the final independent autopsy results, but have not been able to reach Crump since January. Crump also represents the family of Nolan Wells.

On the same day that Trey Reed was found last year, police in Vicksburg, Mississippi, found the body of Cory Zukatis hanging in a tree. Misinformation spread connecting that case to Reed’s, with some falsely claiming that Zukatis, a homeless white man whose dog had recently been taken from him, was also Black. Authorities later ruled his death a suicide, too.

The post Black Woman Found Hanging in Tree in Mississippi Has Been Identified as Tasia Fortune appeared first on Capital B News.