A 29-year-old woman named Tasia Fortune has been found dead by hanging behind a vacant property in west Jackson. Her relatives want some answers. A city councilman has reached out to federal prosecutors for assistance. However, police have not commented on any possible foul play.
Fortune has been identified by the Hinds County Coroner’s Office four days after she was found hanged behind an abandoned property in the backyard of the Road of Remembrance. According to Jeremiah Howard, the body of Fortune was transferred to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. Fortune’s relatives were informed about her death.
So far, the police have not provided any additional information. The spokesman for the Jackson Police Department, Tommie Brown, told Mississippi Today that it is an ongoing investigation and refused to provide an incident report by email. There is no information about the circumstances of her death and whether foul play is suspected.
LaToni Fortune told Mississippi Today that she last saw her sister in July, when Tasia visited her family in Kentucky. The sisters often traveled from Kentucky to Jackson.
The Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes wrote to the U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger’s office on Wednesday seeking help in investigating the murder of Fortune, as reported by WLBT. In his letter, Stokes called the death of Fortune a murder and requested some details, including the perpetrators and the motive.
According to Stokes, the history of Mississippi lynching should be taken into account even if there is no racial component in Fortune’s murder. Stokes also said that public officials should condemn this crime. “Hanging must never be an acceptable behavior,” Stokes said in an interview with WAPT.
Avolio, Fortune’s aunt, created a GoFundMe page for burial expenses. By Friday morning, the amount raised exceeded $2,800 of the total $3,000 needed. Avolio called Fortune a “strong-minded, big-hearted, vibrant young woman” and added that justice will prevail.
The death of Fortune comes in the wake of other recent deaths involving hangings in Mississippi. Trey Reed, an 18-year-old Black student at Delta State University, was found hanged in a tree on the Delta State University campus in September 2025. The authorities determined that it was a suicide. The civil rights attorney, Ben Crump, publicly disputed that conclusion and helped the family obtain an independent autopsy. On the same day, Vicksburg police found Cory Zukatis, a homeless white man, hanged in a tree. His death was also determined to be a suicide after online posts connected these two cases incorrectly.
There was no information about the autopsy results in Fortune’s case by Thursday.
