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Memorial grows for Tasia Fortune as investigators await autopsy results in Jackson

By CNN

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    JACKSON, Miss. (WAPT) — A memorial has been created at the site where 29-year-old Tasia Fortune was found dead hanging in a tree behind an apparently vacant house a week ago Monday.

The makeshift memorial is located near the exact spot where authorities discovered Fortune’s remains. A photo of Fortune, showing her with her hand on one side of her face, has been placed on the ground. It is surrounded by bright balloons, flowers, and teddy bears. It is unclear who placed the items at the site.

Fortune’s family, who are from Kentucky, traveled to the city over the weekend. When reporters visited the memorial, two men who said they knew Fortune were there paying their respects. They expressed confusion about what happened and questioned how she ended up in the tree.

Mayor John Horhn said the medical examiner’s office could release autopsy results on Thursday. He urged the public not to jump to conclusions and to wait for the facts to emerge.

“When incidents like this pop up, the natural conclusion is there’s something very heinous that harkens back to our past as a part of this. I’m not sure that’s the case at this point,” Horhn said.

Police have questioned a person of interest in the case but have not charged them with a crime related to Fortune’s death. The individual, a 65-year-old man who lives on the same street, admitted to having argued with Fortune two days before her body was found. He has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm after detectives discovered he had a gun during questioning. Records show the man has a prior criminal conviction.

Code enforcement has placed a letter on the door of the vacant house, ordering the property owner to appear in court next month to determine whether the property is a public health, safety, and welfare hazard.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

YouTube hotel reviewer claims new luxury resort canceled his reservation and called the police on him

By CNN
(CNN) — A new luxury resort in Mexico that costs thousands of dollars a night is off to a rocky start after a reviewer with a reservation alleges he was turned away at the property’s gates.Ryan Walker, a luxury hotel reviewer on YouTube with more than 140K subscribers, posted a video the first week of August showing an interaction outside the brand-new Amanvari Mexico by Aman Resorts. The property, where stays for August 6 were listed on Aman’s site for more than $6,000 a night, is located about a two-hour drive from San José del Cabo on the Baja California peninsula.Walker’s driver was told he could not enter the property, the video shows, although Walker said he booked the hotel stay weeks ago. The video, viewed more than 500K times the first week, showed a screenshot of an email exchange discussing his stay.Conversations with workers outside the resort quickly escalated with one person captured on video saying she needed to speak with the police. Walker claims they did call the police.“We were stopped by an unmarked armed patrol truck with 5-6 armed officers,” Walker told CNN Travel via email on August 6. “They did not speak to us, however the driver had us roll the windows down and keep them down. We were able to keep driving.”Walker told CNN he had not heard from Aman about the incident as of August 6.Aman and a public relations firm promoting the resort’s opening did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Several days after CNN first published Walker’s account of the incident, a spokesperson for Aman Resorts provided the following statement:“The deceptively edited video created by someone unauthorized to be on our property does not reflect the circumstances of the incident accurately. The privacy and security of our on-property guests is paramount, and maintaining a peaceful environment for our guests and staff is a top priority at all times. This commitment is why Aman’s properties are the leading destinations worldwide for privacy and exclusivity.”In Walker’s YouTube video, a man on site suggested that Walker check his email for a new message. Walker said he found a message from the resort sent the night before his arrival saying that the property was “still in the earliest phase of settling the resort into full operation, and we have taken the difficult decision to reduce arrivals over the coming days while we complete this work.”The email canceled Walker’s stay and apologized for the disruption and short notice.Walker shared a reservation confirmation number with CNN and said he paid the rack rate for his room, totaling $4,662.86. He noted that the rate has gone up online since he booked.Walker speculated in his YouTube video that the resort’s first day of operations went poorly.“So this is how Amanvari is treating their new guests because they’re not ready to accept reservations at their property?” Walker said in the video.He went on to make his case for “why this is such a big deal.”“Independent reviewers protect the customer,” he said.“It is absolutely unacceptable and not OK to me to quiet someone who is trying to create a review during the opening week of your property,” Walker said, noting that he has reviewed other Aman properties in the past and has been a fan of the brand.Walker argues in the video that the hotel should have called him and had conversations with him directly if the property wasn’t ready for reviewers. He said he checked his call logs and had no missed calls from the resort.Walker called the incident “one of the most disappointing and embarrassing hotel experiences you could possibly have.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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