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Mother of woman found hanging in tree shocked as police say body was staged
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Warning: This story contains distressing details
The mother of a woman found hanging in a tree in Mississippi has spoken of her shock after authorities said they believed her daughter was dead before her body was placed at the allegedly "staged" crime scene.
Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old mother of four, was found hanging from a tree at an abandoned home in Jackson in August.
The discovery sparked widespread fears in the majority-black city because of the state's deep history of racial violence and lynchings. But on Friday, police said that Fortune had been dead before her body was hanged from the tree.
"I have more questions now than what I did before," her mother Christy Spivey told the BBC.
The Jackson Police Department said that the medical examiner who conducted Fortune's post-mortem examination had determined that her death was a homicide and that "the scene and the hanging were staged".
Officials have not disclosed the exact cause of death or shared any potential motive behind the allegedly staged hanging.
Three people have been arrested in the case, all of whom are black.
"I was hoping to be more relieved," Spivey said, adding that the police had not specified how the three suspects were connected to her daughter - or why her death was allegedly staged in this way.
"Still no cause of death, no date of death - nothing," she said. "What actually killed her?"
Fortune's death left the local community on edge and lawmakers demanding federal probes. But the latest developments have created more confusion.
Spivey told the BBC that getting the update from the coroner that her daughter did not die by hanging initially gave her peace - at least her daughter did not die in such a gruesome manner, she thought.
"When the police called me, I started crying and thanked them and felt a little more at peace than I had before," she said. "I just hope they've got the right person/people."
When the latest details surrounding her death emerged this week, she said she was "starting to break down".
Police told a court on Friday that Fortune's death was thought to be as a result of a drug-related dispute. A detective said Fortune may have been killed over allegations she stole drugs.
Spivey rejected those allegations, but did acknowledge her daughter suffered from addiction.
"Tasia has an addiction - had - an addiction problem. She was trying to get better," Spivey said.
"If she still was doing drugs, which I'm sure she probably was, she still didn't deserve to be done like that. Nobody does."
She said her daughter was homeless at the time of her death, but typically bounced around other people's homes.
Her four sons, whose ages range from one to seven, are now living with a mix of family and friends. Two are in the process of being adopted.
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Tenth woman's body found as South Africa police probe killings
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Police in South Africa say they have discovered another body in Ekurhuleni, to the east of Johannesburg, bringing the number of women found dead there in recent months to 10.
The body was found on Saturday morning and was identified by the friend with whom she had been at a bar the previous evening.
The local police commissioner said his force could not rule out the possibility that there was a serial killer on the loose, noting similarities across the 10 deaths in Ekurhuleni, as well as another in Soweto.
The deaths have sparked a national outcry about the scale of violence against women in the country, which has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.
The latest body was discovered at a cemetery in the Tembisa neighbourhood north-east of central Johannesburg.
Police issued a statement a short while later saying crime scene investigators were at the scene gathering evidence. Officials have yet to publicly identify the victim.
The woman's friend told national broadcaster SABC that she recognised her friend's clothes from the previous night when shown a picture of the body.
"I don't know what I'm going to say to her children," she said while wiping away tears. "It's painful."
Gauteng Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said that, at this early stage in the investigation, it was too soon to say whether the woman's death was linked to the others.
He told reporters that the other bodies shared a "similar victimology" that indicated a shared "modus operandi" of killing, which would allow police to determine whether this latest death was linked to the others.
"For now, it's not something which we can overrule to say there's a serial killer, but we cannot conclusively indicate as such," Lt Gen Mthombeni said.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates, with 5,427 people murdered between April and June this year alone.
But it is the nature of the recent killings around Johannesburg that has left many women there reeling from the growing death toll.
The 10 other bodies have been found in similar circumstances to one another since July. Most of them were found in Kempton Park, one neighbourhood over from Tembisa.
Many of the bodies were those of young women and almost all had suffered extreme violence prior to their deaths.
The deaths have increased pressure on the national government less than a year after ministers declared gender-based violence a national disaster.
While South African police statistics do not differentiate victims by gender, the South African Human Rights Commission said last week that 569 women were killed and 1,052 others survived attempted murder between April and June this year.
Three men appeared in court earlier this week accused of being involved in one of the nine prior murders, with police working to track down others who may have been involved.
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- Published19 September
- Published17 September
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A third person has been arrested in the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old woman who police said was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned Mississippi home in August.
Eric Clark, 45, surrendered to police on Friday and is charged with murder. Police also disclosed on Friday that according to an autopsy investigation, “the scene and the hanging were staged.”
No other details were released about the scene or Fortune’s killing.
Clark is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Two other people, Earnest Lloyd Jr. and Jarques Ratliff, were also arrested and charged with murder in connection with her death. Both men are Black.
Police have released very little information about what led up to Fortune’s death. Detectives investigating the case have interviewed as many as 15 people, collected forensic evidence and followed numerous leads, police said in a news release.
Authorities said Ratliff, 51, had an “association” with Fortune but did not release further details.
Lloyd, 25, allegedly had a physical altercation with Fortune either days or minutes before she died, according to NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson. Police accused Lloyd of hanging Fortune with a black cable cord, WLBT reported.
Ratliff, who pleaded not guilty, and Lloyd were denied bond at separate court hearings.
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Black woman found hanging from tree was dead before body was 'staged', police say
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Warning: This story contains distressing details
Police in the US state of Mississippi have said they believe a black woman was already dead before her body was "staged" by being placed hanging in a tree.
The disclosure was made in court by a detective on Friday, who also said they believed Tasia Fortune, a mother of four, had been killed in a dispute related to drugs.
The 29-year-old's body was found hanging from a tree at an abandoned home in Jackson in August.
The discovery sparked widespread fears in the majority-black city, due to the state's deep history of racial violence and lynchings. After weeks of speculation and demands for information, police made multiple arrests.
Police said that the medical examiner had determined that Fortune's death was a homicide and that "the scene and the hanging were staged".
Officials have not stated the exact cause of death or shared why they believe the hanging may have been staged.
Fortune's mother told the BBC that she remembered the coroner telling her: "We're not treating this as [an] actual hanging." Her daughter, they told her, was dead before being placed in the tree.
Christy Spivey also recalled police telling her the incident was "drug related".
She described how she knew her daughter fought for her life till the very end while speaking to reporters outside the Jackson Police Department on Friday.
"I know she did. I know my daughter," Spivey said, adding that Fortune had left behind four young children, aged seven, five, four and one.
Dressed in a shirt that read "Justice for Tasia Fortune", Spivey stressed that she did not want to see any innocent people going to jail.
"I just hope they have the right people," she said.
Three people have so far been arrested in relation to the case, all of whom are black, including Jarques Ratliff, 51, who has pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody without bail.
A second person, Earnest Lloyd Jr, 25, was arrested in relation to the case this week.
A third, 45-year-old Eric Clark, turned himself in to authorities on Friday and was charged with murder. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
The 29-year-old's death is one of several cases in recent years that has prompted lawmakers to call on the justice department and the FBI to investigate all hanging deaths of black people in the country.
Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, cited at least 10 documented incidents in her September letter to Congress, external, which contained over 50 signatures from US lawmakers.
The most recent incident happened in Prince George's County, a majority-black suburb near Washington DC, on Sunday. It has since been ruled a suicide.
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- Published12 September
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