Jackson police now say Tasia Fortune was already dead when her body was hung from a tree in a staged hanging tied to a drug dispute, with two men charged and a third still wanted.
New details from a court hearing show investigators no longer treat the hanging as the cause of death. A detective told the court the scene behind an abandoned home in Jackson, Miss., was set up after the killing.
NBC News reported that authorities believe 29-year-old Tasia Fortune was possibly killed at another location before her body was found hanging from a tree on Aug. 3. Officials say she may have been dead two or three days by then.
Two men face murder charges. Jarques Ratliff, 51, and Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, have been arrested. Police also obtained a warrant for a third suspect still at large.
The case drew early attention because of the hanging. But court testimony has pointed away from any historical lynching narrative and toward ordinary criminal violence.
Ratliff pleaded not guilty earlier this month and was denied bond. He told the court Fortune was his friend. His attorney, Toney Baldwin, has pushed back hard on the charges.
Baldwin said he wants the truth about what happened to come out. He added, “My client said he’s not involved and that’s absolutely what I believe.”
"My client said he’s not involved and that’s absolutely what I believe,"
Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has said she wants to know what evidence police actually hold.
Detective names a drug dispute and a staged hanging
At Friday’s hearing, Jackson police Det. Samuel Dukes testified that the hanging was “staged.” He cited the medical examiner’s opinion that Fortune was already dead before her body was put in the tree.
Breitbart reported Dukes’ account that Fortune was killed in a drug disagreement and fought her attackers before she died. Police have not released a formal motive or official cause of death, but the detective linked the case to missing illegal narcotics and declined further details because the grand jury has not received all the evidence.
Local affiliate WLBT reported that Lloyd allegedly had a physical altercation with Fortune either days or minutes before she died and was accused of hanging her with a black cable cord.
Just The News confirmed authorities ruled the death a homicide after the staged scene was uncovered. Two men are in custody and a third remains sought.
The same pattern of early assumptions giving way to hard investigative facts has appeared in other recent cases, including a Mississippi police arrest tied to this hanging death itself.
Arrests mount while evidence heads to a grand jury
Ratliff’s bond denial earlier this month left him locked up as the case moves forward. Lloyd also faces murder charges stemming from Fortune’s death.
The New York Post noted investigators’ conclusion that Fortune fought hard before being killed and that the hanging followed her death. The medical examiner’s view that the scene was staged has become central to the prosecution path.
Police have kept key details close while preparing material for the grand jury. The detective stressed that not all evidence has reached that body yet, which is why fuller answers on motive and exact cause of death remain unreleased.
Similar scrutiny of body-recovery scenes has driven other recent murder cases, such as when a Mississippi man faced a murder charge after a mother was found hanging from a tree.
Fortune was found behind an abandoned home in Jackson. The discovery location and the tree hanging created an immediate visual shock. Detectives now say that image was deliberate staging after a killing that happened somewhere else.
No charging documents with full forensic breakdowns have been made public. Names of every witness and the complete timeline of the alleged altercation also remain limited to the testimony and local reports already described.
Family waits while a third suspect stays free
Spivey has pressed for clarity on the evidence. Baldwin continues to maintain Ratliff’s innocence and calls for the full truth. Meanwhile the warrant for the third suspect means the investigation is unfinished.
Cases that begin with a shocking body discovery often test whether police follow physical evidence or public emotion. Here the evidence path has led to murder charges and a homicide ruling rather than an unsolved mystery.
Other investigations have turned on the same kind of careful scene work, from a Jacksonville cold case that ended in charges after decades to remains discoveries that finally produced arrests.
The grand jury will next see the full file. Until then, two men sit charged with murder, a third is sought, and the staged hanging stands as the investigators’ working explanation for how Fortune’s body was displayed.
When a body is found hanging from a tree, the first images can race ahead of the facts. In Jackson the facts now point to a killing, a drug dispute, and a staged scene, not a simple suicide and not an unsolved racial atrocity. Courts and juries exist to sort that difference with evidence, not headlines.
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