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‘She did not do this to herself’: Mother says family ‘devastated’ after woman found hanging in Mississippi

The mother of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman whose body was found hanging from a tree on Aug. 3 in Jackson, Mississippi, told ABC News on Sunday afternoon that her daughter’s death has “just devastated” her family. (Photo courtesy of Christy Spivey)

(WASHINGTON) — The mother of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree on Aug. 3 in Jackson, Mississippi, told ABC News on Sunday afternoon that her daughter’s death has “just devastated” her family.

“This has just devastated us,” Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said. “Tasia was strong-minded, she was full of laughs and love, she had faith in God. … She had so little and gave so much.”

Spivey said that she last saw her daughter, who is a mother of four, on July 26 after she traveled from Mississippi, where she has lived for over a decade, to Kentucky for a family reunion.

When asked about Fortune’s state of mind the last time she saw her, Spivey said, “She was better than I had seen her in a long time. She was at peace.” Asked if her daughter could have died by suicide, Spivey said, “She did not do this to herself. I know my daughter and she did not do this to herself.”

A spokesperson for the Jackson Police Department (JPD) confirmed to ABC News on Saturday night that police are investigating Fortune’s death and confirmed that the Hinds County Coroner’s Office identified Fortune.

Asked about the status of the investigation and if any persons of interest have been interviewed, the spokesperson did not provide further comment.

The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy to determine Fortune’s cause and manner of death, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

Jackson City Council member Kenneth Stokes sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger, asking for help in investigating this case, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.

“We are in dire need of the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the death of an unidentified female discovered hanging in the backyard of an abandoned house on the Road of Remembrance in Jackson, Mississippi,” the letter says.

The woman has since been identified as Fortune.

ABC News reached out to Stokes for further comment. Asked if his office is investigating this case, Kruger did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call Crime Stoppers at 601-355-TIPS.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘My Guardian and Protector’: Natalie Harp letters express her devotion to Trump

By CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp expressed her utmost loyalty to him in at least two letters addressed to the president, which were published by The Daily Beast on Thursday amid increased scrutiny of the close aide’s relationship to Trump.“I want things to always be right between us,” Harp wrote in one of the letters, which were printed out and signed. It began with “Dear Mr. President” and concluded with, “With all my heart, Natalie.” Excerpts of one of the letters had previously been published by the New York Times.Harp’s constant and dedicated presence at Trump’s side has been in the spotlight this week after Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her by name in a now-viral speech attacking Trump. The Georgia senator swiped at the president’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” a reference to her joining the president — along with a very limited group of aides — when he secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey due to a threat from Iran in July.She added in the letter from 2023: “I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”In another letter, Harp reminisced about their relationship when she was a host on the conservative One America News Network.“I miss the days when you used to call, during my Talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing,” Harp wrote. “I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time!!”In the same letter, Harp added: “And please, when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.”White House spokesperson Davis Ingle defended Harp in a statement to CNN earlier this week, saying she is “one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team.” CNN has reached out to the White House for additional comment.CNN has not independently confirmed that Harp wrote or sent these letters to Trump in 2023. The Daily Beast said the writer Michael Wolff obtained them while he was writing a book about Trump’s 2024 campaign.On Tuesday, CNN reported that Harp is so close to Trump that she rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him to a court appearance in New York City in October 2023.Harp’s methods have irked senior aides and at times prompted efforts to box her out of the president’s inner circle, according to multiple sources who described her dynamic with Trump.The former television host began working for Trump after crediting him with saving her life. Harp has become a main conduit between the president and the outside world, passing along messages from allies and setting up meetings, typing out Truth Social posts and toting printouts of laudatory articles, all while staying in close physical proximity at all hours of the day.She is known as the “human printer” — a title she referenced in one of the letters, in which she said Trump “forced me to ‘unplug’” during a trip to Scotland and Ireland.“I didn’t have to be ‘Human Printer.’ I could take time to enjoy good conversation, and still get all my work done at the end of the day. In fact, I even had time to take long morning and evening walks to enjoy each Sunrise and Sunset (though I did forget to eat and sleep!),” she wrote.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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