Man arrested in death of Tasia Fortune, woman found hanging from tree

Mississippi police have arrested a man in the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman found hanging from a tree last month.

Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said at a news conference Friday that police had secured search and arrest warrants for Jarques Ratliff and arrested him when they encountered him walking on the street. Brackney said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but would not disclose details about it at this time.

Ratliff, 51, was arrested on a charge of murder, police said.

The state medical examiner’s office determined Thursday evening that the death was a homicide, Brackney said, allowing them to execute the warrants they already had on hand.

“This case remains active and additional arrests will be pending,” Brackney said.

The chief said police interviewed nearly 15 people, collected forensic evidence and pursued leads in the case. “The warrants executed today and the arrest of Mr. Ratliff are significant steps, but there is still an ongoing investigation,” Brackney said. 

Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, said Friday after police told her of the arrest that “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.'”

Spivey said police did not share a motive or whether DNA led them to the arrest. Spivey said she did not know the man who had been arrested, but was asking her daughter’s friends if they knew him. Spivey described the family as “in disbelief” and “shock.”

“We still don’t have a lot of answers,” Spivey said.

Police discovered 29-year-old Fortune’s body hanging in the backyard of an abandoned home in Jackson on Aug. 3.

Fortune died less than a year after the hanging deaths of 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 concluded Reed’s death was a suicide. Autopsy results were consistent with a preliminary examination of the body by the Bolivar County coroner, which found no evidence 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.