{"id":224075,"date":"2026-09-13T20:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/man-arrested-in-connection-with-death-of-tasia-fortune-in-mississippi-nbcnews-com\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:40:24","slug":"man-arrested-in-connection-with-death-of-tasia-fortune-in-mississippi-nbcnews-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/man-arrested-in-connection-with-death-of-tasia-fortune-in-mississippi-nbcnews-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested in connection with death of Tasia Fortune in Mississippi – nbcnews.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
A man has been arrested in the death of Tasia Fortune<\/a>, the 29-year-old Black woman who was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi last month, police announced Friday.
Jarques Ratliff <\/strong>was arrested Friday afternoon and will be charged with homicide, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters. She said he had an \u201cassociation\u201d with Fortune, but did not disclose what kind.
Fortune\u2019s body was discovered Aug. 3 behind an abandoned building in Jackson. Her family had previously said they did not believe Fortune died by suicide. The case sparked widespread alarm and media attention given Mississippi\u2019s sordid history with racial violence.
Her death was officially classified as a homicide Thursday evening, Brackney said. That determination led police to secure two search warrants and an arrest warrant for Ratliff, she said.
Investigators served the search warrants Friday, but Ratliff was not found at the location. Officers heading back to headquarters later found him walking along Capitol Street and took him into custody, Brackney said.
\u201cThe arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion. This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cbecause Tasia and her children deserve nothing less.\u201d
Ratliff, 51, was being held in the Hinds County jail Saturday. It\u2019s not immediately clear whether Ratliff has retained an attorney.
Brackney said the Fortune family was immediately notified of the arrest.
Christy Spivey, Fortune\u2019s mother, told The Associated Press that after she learned of the arrest, she \u201cjust started crying and told them \u2018thank you, thank you, thank you.\u2019\u201d
Spivey, who did not know Ratliff, said the family is \u201cin disbelief\u201d and that they \u201cstill don\u2019t have a lot of answers.\u201d Police did not share a motive or whether DNA led to the arrest, she told the AP.
While Fortune\u2019s death has been ruled a homicide, Brackney \u2014 who was cautious as she described Fortune as found \u201cin a hanging position\u201d \u2014 did not elaborate on the cause of death determination.
The chief acknowledged the scrutiny into the case, saying, \u201cWe understand the questions and the desire for answers given Mississippi\u2019s history,\u201d but stressed the case must be based on evidence and facts.
Fortune was originally from Kentucky, but had been living in Jackson for the last 10 years, according to her obituary.
She was remembered as an \u201cintelligent and talented\u201d woman, who was a cross country athlete in her younger years.
\u201cTasia\u2019s path was not always easy, and there were highs and lows,\u201d her obituary said. \u201cBut no matter what, she never lost her faith in God. She leaves behind a powerful legacy of resilience, rooted deeply in her unwavering faith.\u201d
She leaves behind four children: Davion, 7, Terence Jr., 5, Tristian, 4, and Donte\u2019, 1.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA man has been arrested in the death of Tasia Fortune, the 29-year-old Black woman who was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi last month, police announced Friday.Jarques Ratliff was arrested Friday afternoon and will be charged with homicide, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}