// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Mother demands answers, weeks after black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree
Christy Spivey told the BBC she was angered by the investigative hold-ups over the death of her daughter, Tasia Fortune
The mother of a black woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in Jackson, Mississippi, has told the BBC she is still waiting for answers from officials more than a month later.
Her demands have been echoed by a community in the southern US state that has been left shocked and angry.
After weeks of silence, police on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that they were investigating the death of Tasia Fortune, 29, as a potential homicide - while clarifying that her official cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
Authorities discovered Fortune's body on 3 August, hanging from a tree in the lot of an abandoned home.
Local concern over her death has been heightened by the fact that the state has a dark history of racial violence and lynchings.
The majority-black city has been left on edge. As the question lingers as to how Fortune died, petitions online signed by tens of thousands of people have called for more transparency, and members of US Congress have asked for federal intervention.
"It's making me angry," Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, said. "What is the hold up?"
Spivey described desperate attempts to understand the status of the investigation and how multiple enquiries to police had gone unanswered.
The first update she had received from authorities in weeks came in a public city meeting on Tuesday evening as Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney discussed the case and said the department "has been investigating this case from day one as a homicide".