Updated Sept. 11, 2026, 8:40 p.m. ET
A man was arrested Friday, Sept. 11, in connection with the hanging death of a Mississippi Black woman, Jackson police announced.
Tasia Fortune, 29, was found dead and hanging from a tree in the backyard of an abandoned house in Jackson on Aug. 3. The discovery of her body was followed by calls for an investigation, including from prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
The state medical examiner’s office classified Fortune’s death as a homicide Thursday evening and on Friday officers arrested Jacques Ratliff in Jackson in connection with the death, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters.
“With that determination, our investigators moved quickly,” Brackney said Friday of the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office’s findings. “That arrest today is an important development in this investigation but it is not the conclusion.”
She added: “This case remains active and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators will be continuing to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
The police chief said there will be a charge of murder in the case without saying whether Ratliff was being charged with killing Fortune. The woman and Ratliff had an “association” with each other, said Brackney without elaboration.
“There is an association but at this point in time we’re not doing to develop the extent of that association, we’re not going to divulge that,” she said.
The Fortune family and Ratliff could not be immediately reached for comment.
USA TODAY has reached out to authorities in Jackson for additional information on Ratliff’s arrest.
The Jackson police chief noted the attention the case has drawn because of the Black woman’s death by hanging and Mississippi’s troubled past with violence based on race.
“We understand the question and the desire for answers given Mississippi’s history,” Brackney said. “We do not dismiss those concerns, we are taking them seriously.”
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