Mississippi police arrest a man in the death of Tasia Fortune

Mississippi police have arrested a man in the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman found hanging from a tree last month.

Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said at a news conference Friday that police had secured search and arrest warrants for 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff and arrested him when they encountered him walking on the street. Brackney said the man had an “association” with Fortune but would not elaborate on their relationship.

The state medical examiner’s office determined Thursday evening that the death was a homicide, Brackney said, allowing police to execute the warrants they already had on hand.

“This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending,” Brackney said.

Ratliff did not appear in Hinds County jail records, and court records were not accessible online. It couldn’t immediately be determined if he had a lawyer, and a message was left for the public defender’s office.

Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, said Friday after police told her of the arrest that, “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’ ”

Spivey said police did not share a motive or whether DNA led them to the arrest. Spivey said she did not know the man who had been arrested, but she was asking her daughter’s friends if they knew him. Spivey described the family as “in disbelief” and “shock.”

“We still don’t have a lot of answers,” Spivey said.

Police discovered Fortune’s body hanging in the backyard of an abandoned home in Jackson on Aug. 3.

Spivey said she was certain that her daughter, 29, would not have killed herself.

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

Fortune was the mother of four children, but she rarely saw two of them, Spivey said. The last time Spivey saw her daughter was in late July for a planned family reunion in Kentucky that was canceled, but her daughter came to see her anyway.

“When she was there, there was this pull, like a spiritual pull to her. I needed her. I guess God knew that was going to be it,” Spivey said.

Spivey said she and Fortune’s father faced racism and violence as a mixed-race couple in Crittenden County, Kentucky, before Fortune was born.

Fortune was taken from her parents and placed in foster care as a child. During her high school years, she moved around among group homes and eventually ran away to Mississippi.

Spivey wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death but said her daughter had been struggling with homelessness in recent years. Fortune had two sisters and was close with them. The father of one of her children was verbally and physically abusive to Fortune, Spivey said.

Before she died, Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

“Say her name. Keep it going,” Spivey said. “Because I’m not going to stop until I get answers.”

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Associated Press writer Josh Kelety contributed to this report.

Jaimie Ding And Kristin Hall, The Associated Press