More than a month after 29-year-old Tasia Fortune was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant Mississippi home, police say they are still treating her death as a homicide.

But one crucial piece of the case remains missing.

The official autopsy findings.

Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told the Jackson City Council on Sept. 8 that investigators have approached Fortune’s death as a homicide “from day one” and will continue to do so unless the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office determines otherwise.

The distinction is important.

Police treating a suspicious death as a homicide does not mean the medical examiner has officially ruled that Fortune was killed by another person. As of the latest update, authorities had not publicly released a final cause or manner of death.

That uncertainty has left Fortune’s family waiting for answers while a case that already carries enormous emotional and historical weight continues to generate national attention.

Fortune was a Black mother of four.

She was found hanging from a tree in Jackson, Mississippi.

And her mother says she does not believe for a moment that her daughter took her own life.

Fortune Was Found Behind a Vacant Home

Fortune’s body was discovered on Aug. 3 behind a vacant property in the 500 block of Road of Remembrance in west Jackson.

Police responded that evening and launched what they initially described publicly as an active death investigation.

The Hinds County Coroner’s Office later identified the woman as Fortune, who had lived in Mississippi for more than a decade but had family roots in Kentucky. Her remains were sent to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

From the beginning, authorities were cautious about stating publicly exactly how she died.

Police did not immediately announce whether they believed another person was responsible.

But the circumstances inevitably generated intense concern.

A Black woman had been found hanging from a tree in Mississippi — imagery inseparable for many Americans from the South’s history of racial terror and lynching.

Police Chief Brackney has cautioned the public against jumping from that history to an unsupported conclusion about Fortune’s specific case.

Authorities have not publicly established that her death was racially motivated or a hate crime.

Her Mother Says She Was Not Suicidal

Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has been far less uncertain about one question.

She does not believe her daughter died by suicide.

“She did not do this to herself,” Spivey told ABC News after Fortune’s death.

Spivey described her daughter as strong-minded, loving and deeply religious.

She had last seen Fortune on July 26, when Fortune traveled to Kentucky for a family reunion.

That was just over a week before her body was discovered in Jackson.

Fortune’s obituary paints a fuller picture of the woman behind the headlines.

She was a former standout cross-country athlete who had been academically advanced enough to skip her junior year of high school.

She was also the mother of four young boys — ages 7, 5, 4 and 1 — and was remembered by her family for maintaining her faith even through difficult periods of her life.

For her relatives, the delay in receiving definitive answers has become another source of pain.

The Autopsy Was Completed Weeks Ago

An autopsy was performed in August.

But more than four weeks later, Jackson police said they still had not received the medical examiner’s final findings.

That means investigators were still waiting for the document that could formally classify Fortune’s manner of death as homicide, suicide, accident, natural causes or undetermined.

Brackney told city officials that until the medical examiner provides a different conclusion, police will continue investigating the case as a homicide.

That approach preserves evidence and allows detectives to treat the possibility of another person’s involvement seriously while medical findings remain pending.

But it also means two separate questions should not be confused.

Police are investigating a possible homicide.

The medical examiner has not yet publicly ruled the death a homicide.

A Man Was Questioned — But Has Not Been Charged in Fortune’s Death

Investigators have also questioned a 65-year-old man named Terence Anderson.

During an unrelated court proceeding, detectives said Anderson had been interviewed in connection with Fortune’s death.

According to local reporting, Anderson admitted that he and Fortune had argued but denied having anything to do with her death.

Police also raised the possibility that Anderson and Fortune had been in a relationship, which Anderson reportedly denied.

Anderson lives in the same general block where Fortune was found.

However, the legal distinction surrounding him is critical.

He has not been charged in connection with Fortune’s death.

His arrest involved a separate allegation that he was a felon in possession of a firearm. A judge set bond in that case at $250,000.

The firearm charge does not establish any connection between the weapon and Fortune’s death.

Jackson police have also been cautious about formally labeling Anderson publicly as a suspect in the death investigation.

A City Councilman Wants Federal Help

The uncertainty surrounding the case has prompted calls for outside involvement.

Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi to assist in the investigation.

Stokes has argued that the circumstances demand an especially thorough and transparent inquiry, particularly given Mississippi’s history.

Fortune’s mother has also expressed frustration with the amount of information the family has received while waiting for answers.

Brackney said she has remained in contact with Spivey and her husband, but explained that the Hinds County coroner ultimately must provide the family with the medical examiner’s cause-of-death findings once they become available.

For now, investigators and Fortune’s relatives are effectively waiting on the same thing.

The autopsy report.

Police Are Also Warning Against Rumors

The unusual and disturbing circumstances have fueled extensive speculation online.

Some posts have attempted to connect Fortune’s death to other recent hanging deaths or characterize the case as part of a larger pattern.

Brackney has urged caution.

She said there has been substantial misinformation surrounding this and other cases and warned against labeling unrelated deaths as a serial pattern without evidence.

That caution is especially important because the visual circumstances of Fortune’s death naturally provoke powerful historical associations.

Those associations deserve to be acknowledged.

But they cannot replace forensic evidence.

The investigation still has to establish what happened specifically to Tasia Fortune.

Four Children Are Waiting for the Same Answer

Amid arguments about homicide classifications, autopsy delays and potential federal involvement, it can be easy to lose sight of who Fortune was.

She was 29.

She had four children.

She had traveled home to see family only days before her death.

Her obituary remembers her as intelligent, athletic, resilient and rooted in her Christian faith.

Her mother remembers someone who laughed, loved deeply and gave to others even when she had little herself.

Now her family is left with an image that is impossible to forget — and a question authorities still cannot definitively answer.

Jackson police say they are treating the case as a homicide.

A man has been questioned but not charged in her death.

Federal assistance has been requested.

The autopsy has been completed.

But its final conclusions have not been publicly released.

Until they are, the most important words surrounding Tasia Fortune’s death remain the ones investigators still have not been able to provide:

what happened to her — and how?