New Hanging Death Cases Probed in Mississippi, North Carolina

KEMETIC MINDS
Strange Fruit — August 25, 2026

Case: Tasia Fortune, Jackson, Mississippi

Tasia Fortune, 29, a mother of four, was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home on the 500 block of Road of Remembrance in a predominantly Black west Jackson, Mississippi, neighborhood on Aug. 3 (Chicago Crusader, 2026). Her body was identified three days later by the Hinds County Coroner’s Office (Chicago Crusader, 2026).

An autopsy was performed Aug. 12 by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office, and results have not been announced; no official ruling on her cause or manner of death has been issued (Chicago Crusader, 2026). A person of interest, Terence Anderson, 65, who shares a child with Fortune, was arrested Aug. 8 on an unrelated felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm charge (Chicago Crusader, 2026). Fortune’s death is the latest in a cascade of disputed deaths in Mississippi (Chicago Crusader, 2026).

“She did not do this to herself,” Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told ABC News (Chicago Crusader, 2026). “Tasia was strong-minded, she was full of laughs and love, she had faith in God. She had so little and gave so much” (Chicago Crusader, 2026). Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes asked U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger for federal assistance, calling Fortune a murder victim (Chicago Crusader, 2026).

Priscilla Williams-Till, cousin of Emmett Till and founder of the Emmett Till Justice for Families Foundation, said: “It is still an active investigation, she had white family members, and it was on their property she was found hung and there are just too many questions” (Chicago Crusader, 2026). Williams-Till said the foundation is prepared to “challenge these injustices through lawful means, using every available legal avenue to investigate, expose, and pursue accountability in modern-day lynchings and other racially motivated acts of violence” (Chicago Crusader, 2026). The foundation is named after the 14-year-old Chicago child kidnapped and murdered by white men while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi; Aug. 29 marks the 71st anniversary of that case (Chicago Crusader, 2026).

Case: Demetrius Fleming, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina

Demetrius Fleming, 38, was found hanging from a ligature on Roanoke Avenue in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on Friday morning (NC Beat, 2026). Officers responded shortly after 6:45 a.m. to the 1900 block of Roanoke Avenue after a 911 call that first came in as an attempted suicide, and Fleming was pronounced dead at the scene (NC Beat, 2026).

The ligature has not been publicly identified, and an autopsy is pending (NC Beat, 2026). Authorities have not ruled whether Fleming’s death came as a result of foul play (NewsOne, 2026).

Police Chief Lawrence Wiggins said the case remains “an open, equivocal death investigation” (NewsOne, 2026). “We are aware of the implications surrounding the death of a Black man by hanging,” Wiggins said (NC Beat, 2026). “We’re not working from any strict assumption — anything is on the table and we’re pursuing any and all leads” (NC Beat, 2026).

Fleming’s hanging death comes about a week after another Black man was found hanging from a tree in Raleigh, a case police initially ruled a suicide (NewsOne, 2026). “It’s the elephant in the room, right? Now we have this particular incident,” Wiggins said. “We can’t say they’re connected, and we don’t know the motivations behind why our incident occurred” (NewsOne, 2026).

How to Protect Yourself and Your Family

These are general, actionable safety steps — not specific to any case above.

Before Anything Happens

• Share your live location with a trusted person — Use a phone’s built-in location-sharing (Find My / Google Maps location sharing) with at least one person you trust, especially when traveling alone, at festivals, or in an unfamiliar city.
• Agree on a check-in schedule — Set a specific time to check in by text or call when going somewhere new — a missed check-in is the earliest possible warning sign, and it only works if someone is expecting it.
• Keep a written record of plans — Tell someone the specific address, event, or route you’re heading to, and who you expect to be with.

The First 24-48 Hours of a Disappearance

• Do not wait 24 hours to report — There is no official waiting period to file a missing-person report in the United States — contact local police immediately. The first hours are the most critical window for locating someone.
• File with local police, not just online — Go in person or call the non-emergency line of the police department covering the area the person was last seen, and ask for a case number.
• Contact the Black and Missing Foundation — BAMFI helps families get missing-persons cases visibility and media coverage: 1-877-972-2634.
• Submit the case to NamUs — The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (namus.gov) is the free national database law enforcement and families can both use to search and cross-reference cases.
• Preserve digital evidence — Screenshot the person’s last social media activity, save texts, and note their phone’s last known location before it might be wiped or reset.

Staying Safe Day to Day

• Trust your instincts in unfamiliar situations — If a situation feels wrong, leave — don’t wait for proof.
• Travel in groups when possible — At festivals, parks, or unfamiliar areas, especially at night, stay with people you know.
• Keep emergency contacts accessible — Store ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts directly on your phone’s lock screen.

What This Roundup Does and Doesn’t Show

Each case above is reported exactly as documented in its cited source — nothing here claims these cases are connected to one another or part of any organized pattern. Where a family or community disputes an official finding, that dispute is stated as a dispute, not as fact.

Track every current Black missing-persons case we know of, plotted on one map, on our standing Missing People in the United States page.

References