The discovery in August set off fear across Jackson, a majority-black city with a painful history tied to the state's legacy of racial violence and lynchings. Friday's announcement shifted the investigation away from the initial assumption of how Fortune died.
Fortune's mother told the BBC she was shocked by the update. For months she had grappled with the image of her daughter hanging from a tree, only to learn now that someone had staged the scene afterward.
For Jackson, the case cuts two ways. It removes one immediate fear, that a lynching happened in broad daylight in 2024. But it opens a harder question, who killed a 29-year-old mother of four and then chose to hang her body from a tree in a city where that image carries generations of trauma.
Police have not said who they believe is responsible or why the scene was arranged that way. Fortune's family is left waiting for answers that, for now, raise more questions than they settle.