JACKSON, Miss. — Jackson police are investigating the death of Tasia Fortune as a homicide, Chief RaShall Brackney told the City Council, clarifying a case that had previously been classified as a “death pending investigation.” Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman, was found hanging from a tree outside an abandoned house last month. A makeshift memorial now stands at the property, where relatives and community members have gathered to honor her. “Jackson Police Department has been investigating this case from day one as a homicide, until we hear otherwise from the medical examiner’s office,” Brackney said during a council meeting. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy on Aug. 11, but police had not received a ruling on the cause and manner of Fortune’s death as of the council meeting. Brackney said she had contacted the medical examiner’s office director and the commissioner overseeing the office but had not obtained a final determination. Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said autopsy reports are not considered overdue until 90 days have passed. The department’s average turnaround time is shorter than that, he said. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has criticized what she described as a lack of communication from investigators. In a letter read aloud at the council meeting, Spivey said detectives repeatedly gave her the same limited response before communication stopped. “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.” Spivey later wrote on a family fundraising page that she sought help from Councilman Kenneth Stokes because of what she called the police department’s “silence and rudeness.” She said the council discussion prompted police to publicly acknowledge that the case was being handled as a homicide. Brackney said investigators have remained in regular contact with Spivey and her husband but are waiting for the medical examiner’s findings. No arrests have been made in connection with Fortune’s death. The father of one of Fortune’s children was arrested shortly after her body was found on unrelated weapons charges and remains in custody, according to jail records. City Council President Vernon Hartley said the investigation must be completed and its findings addressed publicly. “We need to pursue (Fortune’s) investigation to its final conclusion and whatever the results, we need to address those results,” Hartley said. Stokes said residents in his ward are worried because they have not been told what happened or who may be responsible. He also pointed to Mississippi’s history of racial violence involving hangings, as well as two other recent hanging deaths in the state. “Hanging is an ugly, ugly part of our past that we never, ever want to come back again,” Stokes said at the meeting. The deaths of Trey Reed, a 21-year-old Black student found hanging at Delta State University in Cleveland in 2025, and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s found hanging in Vicksburg, were ruled suicides by authorities. Those cases have heightened public concern around Fortune’s death, particularly while the medical examiner’s ruling remains pending. Brackney urged the public not to draw conclusions before the investigation and autopsy process are complete, warning that misinformation has circulated about Fortune’s case and other hanging deaths. Fortune’s family has said her children’s future is secured and that relatives remain focused on seeking justice. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not announced a cause or manner of death.