US woman found hanging from tree was dead before body was 'staged', police say
Cops believe Tasia Fortune, who was discovered hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home in Mississippi, could have already been dead for two or three days when she was found
A black woman found hanging from a tree in America was already dead before her body was found, investigators believe.
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The body of Tasia Fortune, 29, was discovered hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home in Jackson, Mississippi on 3 August.
Police have not released her exact cause of death but are treating it as a homicide and believe the motive could have been a drug dispute.
Her body was found on the 500 block of Road of Remembrance in the western part of Jackson, and officials believe she may have been dead for two or three days before she was found.
On Friday Eric Clark, 45, became the third person to be arrested in connection with her death. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
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Two other men, both black, Earnest Lloyd Jr and Jarques Ratliff, were also charged with murder.
Police disclosed on Friday that an autopsy investigation found that “the scene and the hanging were staged”.
They did not reveal additional information about the investigation or why they believe the scene was faked.
Jackson police detective Samuel Dukes told a court hearing on Friday that the hanging was "staged" and the motive for the killing appears to have been a drug dispute.
Ratliff, 51, pleaded not guilty during a court hearing earlier this month.
His lawyer told the court that Ms Fortune was his friend and that Ratliff wants the "truth about what happened to come out".
"My client said he's not involved and that's absolutely what I believe," his lawyer Toney Baldwin said.
A second suspect, 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr, was arrested this week. He has reportedly pleaded not guilty.
The case has attracted widespread attention across the United States because of the scene's invocation of lynchings in the Southern state which has a long history of racial violence.
Ms Fortune's mother Christy Spivey said her daughter, who was a mum of four, had experienced homelessness in recent years.
She revealed she had last seen her daughter on 26 July and was not sure where she was living at the time of her death.
But she said Ms Fortune seemed to be "in good spirits" the last time she saw her. "She was better than I had seen her in a long time," she told ABC News. "She was at peace."