JACKSON, Miss. Investigators now say 29 year old Tasia Fortune was already dead when her body was placed in a tree behind a vacant house in west Jackson, and that the hanging scene discovered on Aug. 3 was staged. A Jackson Police Department detective testified Friday that the killing was tied to a dispute over missing illegal narcotics. The same day, police announced that a third suspect had been charged with murder after turning himself in.
Fortune, a mother of four who was originally from Kentucky and had lived in Jackson for about 10 years, was found hanging from a tree in the backyard of a vacant home in the 500 block of Road of Remembrance. Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard confirmed the discovery date and location. Police later said investigators believe she had been dead for two to three days before her body was found. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office classified the death as a homicide.
Authorities have not publicly released the exact cause of death. Jackson police Det. Samuel Dukes testified Friday in Jackson Municipal Court that the medical examiner concluded the hanging was staged. Dukes said investigators believe Fortune was killed at another location and that her body was later moved and placed in the tree.
Police have said a black cable cord was used to hang the body. In court testimony Friday, Dukes also said interviews indicated Fortune fought hard before she was killed. He told the court that “missing illegal narcotics” were central to the case and that investigators allege Fortune had taken them. Police have not publicly identified the type of drugs involved, the amount, or the precise location where they say the killing occurred.
The case drew national attention because the scene recalled Mississippi’s history of racial terror lynchings. Fortune was Black, and the three people now charged are also Black. Police have not said race was a motive. Investigators have instead described the alleged motive as a drug dispute.
Three people have been arrested and charged with murder. None of those charges has been proven in court. Jarques Ratliff, also known as Jock, 51, was the first person charged. Police arrested him on Sept. 11 on Capitol Street after the medical examiner’s homicide ruling the night before.
Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said officers had already prepared search and arrest warrants and executed them once that ruling arrived. Brackney said investigators had interviewed about 15 people and completed hundreds of hours of work before the first arrest. Ratliff appeared in Jackson Municipal Court on Sept. 14, pleaded not guilty, and was denied bond after a judge deemed him a flight risk. He remains in the Hinds County jail.
During that appearance, investigators cited an affidavit alleging that Ratliff used a black cable cord to hang Fortune from the tree. Brackney earlier said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but did not describe it at the time. On Friday, during Ratliff’s preliminary hearing before Judge Lilli Evans Bass, Dukes testified that Ratliff was one of a group of people police consider involved. Investigators told the court that Ratliff and Fortune had been friends and intimate with each other.
Dukes said Ratliff gave an account of Fortune’s ability to protect herself and described details that, in the detective’s words, “you would only know if you were there.” Police said a DNA sample was taken from Ratliff and that items found on Fortune may have belonged to him. Those tests remain pending. Dukes also said investigators interviewed Ratliff twice after the homicide ruling and before his arrest.
Ratliff interrupted the hearing to say Fortune had been his friend. His attorney, Toney Baldwin, then advised him to remain quiet. Outside court, Baldwin said his client maintains he was not involved and that the defense wants the full truth to come out. Ratliff’s stepdaughter, Lashuna Jones, said she believed he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The preliminary hearing was recessed and is set to resume Sept. 30. Its purpose is to determine whether there is enough evidence to send the case against Ratliff to a grand jury. Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, was arrested Sept. 22 and charged with murder.
He appeared in Jackson Municipal Court on Sept. 23, pleaded not guilty, and was also denied bond. Police said witnesses directed investigators to Lloyd and that he had a physical altercation with Fortune either days or minutes before she died. Jackson police also told local reporters that witnesses saw Lloyd chasing Fortune sometime before her death. Details of that encounter have not been released.
Local reporting based on police statements has also said investigators accuse Lloyd of hanging Fortune with a black cable cord. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said after Lloyd’s court appearance that neither she nor several of her daughter’s friends knew him. Eric Clark, 45, became the third person charged when he turned himself in Friday, Sept. 25.
Police said he is charged with murder. His initial appearance is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 28. Authorities have not publicly described Clark’s alleged individual role beyond the murder charge.
A Jackson Police Department news release said the Robbery Homicide Division would continue investigating “until all individuals believed to be involved are held accountable.” Police statements around Lloyd’s arrest indicated investigators believed additional people may have been involved and that more warrants could follow. Chief Brackney had previously said the department was working with the U.S. Marshals Service to locate at least one other person.
As of Friday, Clark was the third person taken into custody. The public record so far shows a case built on witness interviews, the medical examiner’s homicide finding, the conclusion that the hanging was staged, alleged statements by Ratliff, reports of an altercation and chase involving Lloyd, and forensic testing that has not yet been completed. No surveillance video from the scene has been described in court. Dukes said investigators have not confirmed the location where Fortune was killed.
Spivey attended Friday’s hearing wearing a shirt that read “Justice for Tasia Fortune.” She has said her daughter struggled with homelessness in recent years and that she was not sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death. Outside court, Spivey said she had already understood that her daughter died before the body was hung and that the hanging “brought all the attention to it.” She also said she was troubled by testimony that her daughter fought for her life.
“What bothered me was they said Tasia fought for her life. I know she did. I know my daughter,” Spivey said. She later told reporters she hoped investigators have the right people and that she felt sadness seeing Ratliff in court.
After the first arrests, she had expressed relief that police were making progress while also saying she would never fully have peace. Fortune’s children were identified in her obituary as 7 year old Davion, 5 year old Terence Jr., 4 year old Tristian, and 1 year old Donte’. A funeral was held in Kentucky in August.
