Tasia Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned house in Jackson on August 3. Fortune was Black, and the discovery stoked fear in the community because the scene recalled actual lynchings in Mississippi, a southern US state with a long history of racial violence. Some officials called for a federal civil rights investigation at that point, before a Jackson police detective said the scene had been “staged.”

Police disclosed on Friday that she had been killed before her body was placed in the tree and that the scene had been “staged.” Outside the bond hearing on Monday, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters that Fortune was killed as a result of a dispute over drugs. Brackney said props were left at the scene “as part of the staging” of a hanging, and reiterated that more arrests were likely.

At Monday’s hearing, Reynolds set a $5 million bond for Eric Clark, 45, who had turned himself in on Friday. The Hinds County public defender’s office, which is representing Clark, declined to comment. Clark and two other men charged in Fortune’s death — Jarques Ratliff and Earnest Lloyd Jr. — are Black. Ratliff and Lloyd Jr. have been denied bond.

Reynolds acknowledged the community alarm that preceded the staging determination. “People justifiably didn’t know if we had a killer on the loose who might hang people for racial reasons,” Reynolds said Monday. He described the act as “heinous” and said it shocked Jackson.

Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said Clark approached her following a hearing for co-defendant Ratliff and hugged her at the courthouse. “He never said he did it, but he said he was there to turn himself in for murder,” Spivey told reporters on Monday.

Guardian staff contributed reporting.