Man arrested in Tasia Fortune homicide in Mississippi

Jackson police arrested a man Friday in the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman found hanging from a tree last month in Mississippi, a case that drew public alarm and questions from her family and the broader community.

Jacques Ratliff was taken into custody Friday afternoon and will be charged with homicide, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters. Brackney said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but did not describe the nature of their connection. It was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney.

Fortune’s body was discovered Aug. 3 behind an abandoned building in Jackson, in the lot of an abandoned home. Her family had previously said they did not believe she died by suicide. The circumstances of her death, in a majority-Black city in a state with a history of racial violence and lynching, fueled concern among residents and brought national attention to the investigation.

Brackney said Fortune’s death was officially classified as a homicide Thursday evening. That determination led police to obtain two search warrants and an arrest warrant for Ratliff, she said. Investigators served the search warrants Friday but did not find Ratliff at the location. Officers later spotted him walking along Capitol Street as they were returning to headquarters and arrested him, the chief said.

“The arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion,” Brackney said. “This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads.” She added that investigators would continue their work “because Tasia and her children deserve nothing less.”

The BBC reported that Brackney said police had interviewed 15 people in the case and that a suspected killer would be charged with murder. NBC News reported that while Fortune’s death has been ruled a homicide, Brackney, who described Fortune as having been found “in a hanging position,” did not elaborate on the cause-of-death determination.

Brackney said Fortune’s family was immediately notified of Ratliff’s arrest. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC she cried when police called her with the update. “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.”

The arrest followed weeks in which Spivey and Jackson residents described limited information from local officials. Spivey earlier told the BBC she had tried contacting Jackson police several times over two weeks, leaving multiple voicemails without hearing back. Brackney addressed the family’s frustration Friday, saying, “We have been in constant contact with the mother and the stepfather, as well as the biological father, throughout this case.”

A letter Spivey wrote to officials about communication and the pace of the investigation was read during a public city meeting Tuesday, the same day Jackson police announced they were treating the death as a possible homicide. “I’m kind of like in awe,” Spivey told the BBC after the arrest. “Like, I can’t believe it. That was quick.”

Brackney acknowledged the scrutiny surrounding the case. “We understand the questions and the desire for answers given Mississippi’s history,” she said, while emphasizing that the investigation must be based on evidence and facts.

More than 50 members of Congress this week sent a letter to the FBI and Justice Department saying they were “extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in numerous states” and calling for an independent investigation into suspicious deaths of Black Americans, the BBC reported. The letter said at least 10 hangings of Black people had been reported in the United States this year and that more than 70 lynchings were documented between 2000 and 2025.