The death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune remains under investigation in Jackson, Mississippi, with an autopsy still pending and police yet to announce how she died. Fortune’s family firmly rejects the possibility that she took her own life, but they have also made another point clear: they do not believe her death was racially motivated.
That has not stopped CNN from invoking the history of lynching while covering the case.
Fortune’s body was discovered Aug. 3 hanging from a tree behind a vacant property on Road of Remembrance in Jackson. Neighbors alerted police, and investigators believe her body may have been there for three or four days before it was found.
CNN: "The imagery of a black person in the South hanging from a tree evokes painful memories"
PS: Her black boyfriend was arrested
I wonder why CNN left that out 🤔 pic.twitter.com/7a6QNisPsC
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 12, 2026
Her family has insisted from the beginning that suicide does not fit the woman they knew.
“Tasia loved living life, like there’s no way, no way that she took her own life,” her mother, Christy Spivey, told ABC News.
Fortune was the mother of four children. Her father, Antonio Fortune, similarly pointed to his daughter’s relationship with her children and family as one reason he cannot accept that she would have killed herself.
“She was a good mom,” he said. “She had her ups and downs, but she loved her kids, she loved her family, and she knew her family loved her.”
The boyfriend in question: pic.twitter.com/ALB82fzMRr
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) August 13, 2026
The family wants investigators to determine what happened. At the same time, they have rejected speculation that Fortune was targeted because she was Black.
Police have identified 65-year-old Terrence Anderson, also reported as Terence Anderson, as a person of interest. Anderson is the father of Fortune’s 5-year-old son, and authorities believe the two had been in a relationship. Anderson has denied both having a relationship with Fortune and any involvement in her death.
He has been arrested on an unrelated charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, with bond set at $250,000. He has not been charged in connection with Fortune’s death.
Isn’t that the ‘fiery but mostly peaceful’ guy? pic.twitter.com/2gQk51LOqs
— David Dean (@DavidFrankDean) August 12, 2026
Those distinctions matter. The autopsy report remains pending, meaning authorities have not yet publicly established the manner of Fortune’s death.
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez nevertheless drew attention to the racial history associated with the circumstances in which Fortune was found.
“A lot we still don't know here, but obviously the raw image of a black person hanging from a tree in the American south evokes a very painful history,” Jimenez said.
There is no dispute that lynching has a horrific place in American history. But in Fortune’s case, investigators have not announced evidence establishing a racially motivated killing, and her own family has said they do not believe race was the motive.
The reference also comes after two other recent Mississippi deaths involving people found hanging generated public attention.
The CNN article is disgusting. It drops the “two others found” line without saying that both were ruled suicides. https://t.co/iVS6C1Ste9 pic.twitter.com/SL17KwV5uK
— memetic_sisyphus (@memeticsisyphus) August 12, 2026
In September 2025, 21-year-old Demartravion Reed was found hanging near the Delta State University campus in Cleveland, Mississippi. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office later determined following an autopsy that Reed died by suicide.
Another man, Cory Zukatis, was found hanging in a wooded area near the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg on the same day Reed was discovered. Zukatis was white and homeless. His death was also investigated by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office and ruled a suicide.
Fortune’s case has not reached that stage. Her family disputes suicide, police have identified a person of interest, and the medical examiner’s findings have not yet been released.