Mississippi police have arrested a man in connection with the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in the lot of an abandoned home in Jackson in August. Authorities have confirmed her death as a homicide and indicated that further arrests may follow.
Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney identified the suspect as Jarques Ratliff. He also said there was an “association” between Ratliff, who is also Black, and Fortune, without elaborating further. The medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death as homicide and a murder charge is expected.
“That arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion,” Brackney said.
“This case remains active.”
She added that investigators had already interviewed 15 people and that additional arrests were pending.
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Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC she cried when police called with news of the arrest.
“I guess I do feel like a little sigh of relief — like a little bit of peace just come over me,” she said.
“I just hope that they’ve got the right person.”
That sigh of relief came after weeks of what Spivey and Jackson residents described as silence and inaction from local officials. Spivey said she had called Jackson police multiple times over two weeks, leaving voicemails that went unanswered. A letter she wrote to city officials expressing her frustration was read aloud at a public city meeting on Tuesday.
A Developing Pattern
Fortune’s death has shaken Jackson, a majority-Black city in a state with a documented history of racial violence and lynching. Combined with the manner of her death and the weeks of limited communication from authorities, the case has generated fear and grief well beyond her immediate community.
More than 50 members of the US Congress this week sent a letter to the FBI and the Department of Justice expressing alarm over what they described as a pattern of Black people being found hanging from trees across multiple American states.
“The series of deaths raise significant suspicion of foul play given the role of lynching in our nation’s history,” the letter stated.
At least ten such reported hangings of Black people have occurred in the United States so far this year. Between 2000 and 2025, more than 70 lynchings were documented.
