Black woman found hanging from tree was dead before body was 'staged', US media reports

The 29-year-old's body was found in August hanging from a tree on the grounds of an abandoned home in Jackson, a majority-black city. The discovery set off widespread fear and outrage given the history evoked by the scene. Investigators now say Fortune was killed in a dispute connected to drugs, and the hanging came after her death, not as the method of it.

The detective's disclosure, reported by the Associated Press, reframes a case that had gripped the city. What first looked like a hate crime or a modern lynching now appears, according to police, to be a killing staged to resemble one. For a community that saw the image of a black woman's body hanging from a tree, that distinction matters.

Police have not detailed what led investigators to conclude the body was staged, and the case remains active. Fortune's death has gone from a symbol of racial terror to an open question about who killed her and why someone wanted it to look like something else entirely.