As the list of Black people who have died due to suspicious circumstances grows, there is a new update in the case of a 29-year-old mother found hanging in Mississippi.
Jackson, Mississippi, police have arrested a second suspect in connection with Tasia Fortune’s death, nearly two months after she was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home, WLBT reported.
Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, was arrested Tuesday (Sept. 22) and charged with murder. He was denied bond, and authorities have also issued a warrant for a third suspect, according to USA Today.
According to Jackson police, investigators spoke with witnesses who pointed them toward Lloyd. Police say Lloyd had a physical altercation with Fortune either days or minutes before her death and accuse him of hanging her with a black cable cord.
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Department officials told the Clarion Ledger that “Lloyd was observed by witnesses chasing Fortune” sometime before her death. No additional details about the alleged incident have been made public, and no motive has been disclosed.
The arrest comes after police charged 51-year-old Jarques “Jock” Ratliff with murder earlier this month, CBS News reported. Ratliff has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bond. Police Chief RaShall Brackney previously said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but did not elaborate.
Authorities now say Lloyd, Ratliff and two other people are believed to have been involved in Fortune’s death, according to WLBT. Police have indicated that additional arrests could follow.
For Fortune’s family, however, the latest development does not erase the questions that have lingered since Aug. 3, when her body was discovered behind an abandoned home in Jackson.
Her mother, Christy Spivey, attended Lloyd’s court hearing Wednesday. She told CBS News that neither she nor several of Fortune’s friends knew Lloyd and that she did not know how he and her daughter crossed paths. Spivey has similarly said she did not know how Fortune knew Ratliff.
Fortune was a mother of four who had lived in Jackson for about a decade, we previously told you. Her family has said she had been trying to get her life in order and had talked about starting a cleaning business.
The circumstances of her death have also placed the case within a larger conversation about how suspicious deaths involving Black people are investigated.
The Legal Defense Fund has called on Congress to establish a commission to examine suspicious deaths of Black people, including cases involving hangings and drownings, as we also reported. The civil rights organization has also called for greater data collection and scrutiny of whether systemic failures or racial bias affect how such deaths are investigated.
LDF has not declared Fortune’s death a lynching. Rather, the organization has argued that deaths surrounded by unanswered questions deserve careful, independent examination. But as the investigation into Fortune’s death moves forward, her family is still waiting for the fuller story of what happened to her.
