Mom of black woman found hanged in Mississippi insists it was not suicide: She did not do this to herself
The grief-stricken mother of Tasia Fortune, the 29-year-old black woman found hanged from a tree behind an abandoned Mississippi home last week, refuses to believe that her daughter took her own life.“She did not do this to herself,” Christy Spivey told ABC News.“I know my daughter and she did not do this to herself.” Spivey last saw her daughter, a mother of four, on July 26 when Fortune traveled to a family reunion in Kentucky from Mississippi, where she had lived for more than a decade. “She was better than I had seen her in a long time.
She was at peace,” Spivey recalled.Fortune’s body was discovered in Jackson on Aug.3, according to authorities, who said her corpse had been there for three to four days.Authorities have not determined her cause of death as her grieving family anxiously awaits the official autopsy results.Investigators have not indicated whether they consider Fortune’s death suspicious, saying only that they are actively working “to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.” “This has just devastated us,” Spivey said.
“Tasia was strong-minded, she was full of laughs and love, she had faith in God … She had so little and gave so much.”Fortune’s death in Mississippi comes as the Magnolia State has made national headlines recently following the mysterious death of 18-year-old college athlete Nolan Wells, who was found dead on Horn Island in the Gulf of Mexico last month, days after his friends left him there during a Fourth of July celebration.Wells’ parents say how their son died remains a mystery and there have been conflicting stories and missing details.Spivey told ABC News she “does not want [Fortune’s] name associated with” the death possibly being racially motivated.Other local and national figures are calling for justice for Fortune, with some pointing to the state’s tumultuous history of lynchings.“We should not rush to conclusions, but we also cannot dismiss the fear and painful his...