Woman found dead in Mississippi ruled homicide with staged hanging

Police in Jackson, Mississippi, have arrested three people in connection with the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old mother of four. Fortune's body was found hanging from a tree behind an empty house on August 3. Investigators later determined that she was already dead when someone placed her body there. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, but authorities have not said exactly how she died. Jackson is a majority-Black city in Mississippi, a state with a long history of racial violence. When the body was first discovered, many people feared it was a lynching. Fortune's mother said she was shocked to learn the hanging had been staged. Fortune had been homeless in recent years.