Authorities in Mississippi have arrested a man in connection with the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in Jackson last month.
Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said during a Friday news conference that investigators had obtained both search and arrest warrants for Jarques Ratliff. Officers took Ratliff into custody after spotting him walking along a street, she said. Brackney added that Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune, though she declined to provide further details while the investigation continues.
Ratliff, 51, was booked on a murder charge, according to police.
Jackson Police Department
The arrest came after the state medical examiner’s office ruled Fortune’s death a homicide Thursday evening, Brackney said. That determination allowed police to move forward with warrants investigators had already prepared.
“This case remains active and additional arrests will be pending,” Brackney said.
Brackney said detectives have interviewed nearly 15 people, gathered forensic evidence and followed multiple leads. “The warrants executed today and the arrest of Mr. Ratliff are significant steps, but there is still an ongoing investigation,” she said.
Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said she broke down Friday after police informed her of the arrest. “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you,’” she said.
Spivey said investigators did not tell her what motive they believe may have been involved or whether DNA evidence contributed to the arrest. She said she did not know Ratliff and had begun asking her daughter’s friends whether they recognized him. The family, she said, remains in “disbelief” and “shock.”
AP Photo/George Walker IV
“We still don’t have a lot of answers,” Spivey said.
Jackson police found Fortune’s body on Aug. 3, hanging in the backyard of an abandoned home in the city.
Her death came less than a year after two other hanging deaths in Mississippi: 21-year-old Trey Reed, a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused White man in his 30s, in Vicksburg.
Police in Cleveland determined Reed died by suicide. Autopsy results aligned with an initial examination by the Bolivar County coroner, which found no signs of foul play.
Reed’s family and their attorneys called for an independent autopsy and for authorities to share security camera recordings.
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner determined Zukatis died by suicide.
