Overview
- Authorities found 29-year-old Tasia Fortune in a hanging position behind an abandoned house on August 3 and the case was later reviewed by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner.
- Police announced Friday that the medical examiner had ruled Fortune’s death a homicide and that they had secured an arrest warrant as a result.
- Jarques Ratliff, 51, was arrested without incident on a Jackson street and has been charged with murder; he was expected to appear in Jackson Municipal Court on Monday.
- Investigators executed two search warrants, interviewed nearly 15 people and collected forensic evidence, and police say the investigation remains active with possible additional arrests.
- Fortune’s family rejects suicide theories and national lawmakers have urged Department of Justice scrutiny of similar hanging cases given Mississippi’s history of racial violence.