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Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney announced Friday that officers had taken 51-year-old Jacques Ratliff into custody after the medical examiner classified Tasia Fortune’s death as a homicide the previous evening. Brackney said investigators had already secured search and arrest warrants, which they executed at two locations before spotting the suspect walking along Capitol Street and detaining him there. The chief described the arrest as an important development while cautioning that the case remained active with possible additional arrests ahead, according to a CNN report.
Fortune’s body was discovered in a hanging position with various states of decomposition on August 3 in the backyard of a vacant home on Road of Remembrance in Jackson, an Associated Press dispatch from earlier in the investigation detailed. The 29-year-old mother of four, who had lived in Mississippi for more than a decade after moving from Kentucky, was last seen by family members on July 26 during a reunion, her mother Christy Spivey told ABC News. Spivey has repeatedly stated that she knew her daughter would not have died by suicide, a view that prompted the family to push for a thorough inquiry from the outset.
The arrest follows two other incidents in Mississippi in less than a year in which individuals were found hanging from trees, one involving a Black university student and another an unhoused white man, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. Those deaths were officially ruled suicides, yet they fueled public skepticism and discussions about the state’s legacy of racial violence involving lynchings. Police have not drawn any connections between the cases, but the pattern has drawn national coverage from outlets including Newsweek and TheGrio.
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office completed an autopsy on Fortune shortly after her body was identified by the Hinds County Coroner on August 6 but released the homicide determination only on September 10, a timeline outlined in multiple reports including from Mississippi Today. Authorities had treated the matter as a death pending investigation while maintaining contact with the family, Brackney noted during a city council meeting earlier in the week. A person of interest, later identified as the arrested suspect, had previously been questioned and held on unrelated firearms charges, local media accounts indicated.
Fortune’s family expressed relief upon learning of the arrest but conveyed they still sought complete answers on the circumstances and any motive, with Spivey telling officers “thank you” repeatedly while describing the household as in shock. The chief confirmed that Ratliff had some form of association with Fortune though she provided no further specifics during the Friday news conference. A GoFundMe campaign organized by relatives had earlier highlighted their call for justice in what they described from the beginning as a murder.
Coverage across NBC News, CNN and The Seattle Times has underscored how the discovery site in a predominantly Black neighborhood amplified community concerns given Mississippi’s history. Brackney stated that the department had investigated the matter as a potential homicide from the first day until receiving the official ruling from the medical examiner. The case continues with additional search warrants served as detectives follow all available evidence.
