Mississippi Hanging Death Ruled a Homicide as Police Make Arrest, Warn More Are Coming

Jackson, Mississippi, police have arrested a man in the death of a 29-year-old woman found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home, a case that drew global attention and has now shifted from a suspicious death investigation into a homicide prosecution.

Jarques Ratliff, 51, was taken into custody Friday as he walked along a street, authorities said. He faces a homicide charge and is expected in Jackson municipal court no later than Monday morning. Police Chief RaShall Brackney called the arrest an important development while making clear the case is far from closed.

"This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Brackney said.

The Medical Ruling That Broke the Case Open

The state medical examiner's office determined Thursday evening that the death was a homicide, Brackney said. That ruling gave police the legal footing to execute warrants they had already prepared.

The body of Tasia Fortune was discovered Aug. 3 in the backyard of a vacant house in Jackson. For about a month the case sat in limbo while investigators waited on forensic findings and the official manner-of-death determination.

Brackney said Ratliff had an "association" with Fortune but declined to describe their relationship. Police have not released a possible motive, and it remains unclear whether DNA evidence led them to the suspect.

A Family That Never Believed It Was Suicide

Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, said she never accepted that her daughter took her own life.

"Absolutely not. Even if she could climb that tree, no, no, she would never, ever, ever," Spivey said.

Spivey said police told her Friday about the arrest. "I just started crying and told them, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you,'" she said. The family, she added, remains in shock, and she still does not know the man accused in her daughter's death.

An obituary described Fortune as a woman of deep faith, a standout cross-country runner in high school, and a mother of four. She had lived in Jackson for about a decade and had been struggling with homelessness in recent years. Family members said she had been working toward starting a cleaning business and getting her life in order.

Court and family accounts also trace a harder road. Fortune was taken from her parents and placed in foster care as a child, moved among group homes during her high school years, and eventually made her way to Mississippi's capital city, where she built the life her relatives are now fighting to have fully accounted for.

"Say her name. Keep it going," Spivey said. "Because I'm not going to stop until I get answers."

What Happens Next

Ratliff is expected to make an initial court appearance by Monday morning, according to Mississippi state defender Andre de Gruy. As of Saturday he did not appear in Hinds County jail records, and it could not immediately be determined whether he had retained a lawyer. If he is assigned counsel, the Hinds County public defender's office would handle the case.

Jackson police declined Saturday to go beyond confirming the investigation is still underway, and they have not announced a timetable for further arrests.

The case has drawn intense public interest well beyond Mississippi, with advocates and relatives pressing for a full accounting from local authorities. The homicide classification answered one central question. It did not answer the others.

For now, the ruling and the arrest mark the first concrete steps toward accountability. The next chapter plays out in a Jackson courtroom, where prosecutors will begin building a case against the man charged, and investigators will decide who else, if anyone, they believe was involved.

Fortune's family has made one request of the public as the legal process moves forward: keep saying her name, and keep demanding answers until the last of them arrives.