Key takeaways:
- Eric Clark, 45, surrendered Friday and was charged with murder; Earnest Lloyd Jr. and Jarques Ratliff were charged earlier.
- Police said an autopsy investigation determined that the scene and Fortune’s hanging were staged.
- Investigators said Fortune was killed elsewhere before her body was placed in a tree in western Jackson.
A third person has been charged with murder in the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old woman found hanging from a tree in Jackson, Mississippi, as police say an autopsy investigation determined that “the scene and the hanging were staged.”
Eric Clark, 45, surrendered to authorities on Friday, according to the Jackson Police Department. He was expected to appear in court Monday. Police released no further details about Clark’s alleged role in Fortune’s death or what led investigators to conclude the scene had been staged.
Fortune, a mother of four, was found Aug. 3 behind a vacant home on Road of Remembrance in western Jackson, The Guardian reported. Investigators have said she was not killed where her body was discovered.
At an earlier court hearing, Jackson police Detective Samuel Dukes described the hanging as “staged,” according to The Guardian. He said investigators believed Fortune had been killed elsewhere before her body was placed in a hanging position in the tree. Dukes also said investigators determined she had been dead for two to three days before she was found.
Two other men, Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, and Jarques Ratliff, 51, were previously arrested and charged with murder in connection with Fortune’s death. Clark, Lloyd and Ratliff are Black, as was Fortune, The Guardian reported.
Authorities have said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but have not described it further. The Guardian reported that Ratliff and Lloyd have both pleaded not guilty. Both were denied bond at separate court hearings.
Details of the events before Fortune’s death remain limited. NBC News, citing its Jackson affiliate WLBT, reported that Lloyd allegedly had a physical altercation with Fortune either days or minutes before she died. WLBT also reported that police accused Lloyd of hanging Fortune with a black cable cord. The Guardian, also citing WLBT, described the alleged altercation as occurring shortly before Fortune’s death.
Police said detectives have interviewed as many as 15 people, collected forensic evidence and followed numerous leads. They have not released additional information about how Fortune was killed or why the scene was staged.
“The Jackson police department’s robbery-homicide division will continue its investigation until all individuals believed to be involved are held accountable for their actions in connection with Ms Fortune’s death,” the department said in a news release cited by The Guardian.
The Guardian reported that the case drew national attention because of the severity of Fortune’s killing and Mississippi’s history of racist violence and lynchings. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has said she was certain her daughter would not have killed herself, the newspaper reported.
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