r/news • u/SgtHulkasBigToeJam • 14h ago
Tasia Fortune: Arrest made over the death of black woman found hanged from tree
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjkejq5750o273
u/No-Supermarket-8735 10h ago
Thank God there is some justice in the world. I hope she rests in peace and her family finds some closure.
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u/CountVonRimjob 7h ago
Won't be justice until there's a conviction.
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u/toronochef 4h ago
Honestly, it’s a win police in Mississippi even bothered to investigate this as a crime.
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u/Fly-Zip 13h ago edited 4h ago
Jackson Officer Brackney identified the suspect as Jarques Ratliff, 51, and said he would be charged with murder. Brackney added that there was an "association" between Ratliff, who is also black, and Fortune but would not elaborate further.
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u/Cobbyx 11h ago
By a black man. Knowing what the connotation is. Oof. That’s twisted.
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u/PhantomRoyce 9h ago
Happened to my first girlfriends mom. Apparently he did it to throw them off of his scent and make them look for a white guy
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u/wheelsonhell 11h ago edited 2h ago
Probably done to put suspicion off on another group.
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u/elastricity 8h ago edited 8h ago
A small (but not insignificant) minority of Black men believe they deserve to own Black women. It’s a difficult conversation because Black men are so often treated like property by society at large, and we don’t want to make that worse. But at some point, somehow, we have to find a way to talk about it.
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u/ratsta 6h ago
It's great that they have a suspect but JFC what happened to the presumption of innocence?
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u/machine_six 5h ago
The victim's own mother basically agrees:
"I guess I do feel like a little sigh of relief...like a little bit of peace just come over me."
"I just hope that they've got the right person," she added.
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u/in1gom0ntoya 12h ago
its behind a paywall anyone have actual details?
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u/Mr-Klaus 7h ago
Warning: This story contains distressing details
Police in the US state of Mississippi have arrested a man in connection with the death of a black woman found hanged from a tree, and say they could soon take more people into custody.
Tasia Fortune's body was found in the lot of an abandoned home in Jackson in August, but police only announced they were treating her death as a possible homicide earlier this week.
"That arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion," Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said on Friday. "This case remains active."
Fortune's death has worried locals in Jackson, a majority-black city in a state with a history of racial violence and lynching.
During Friday's news conference, Brackney said the medical examiner had confirmed Fortune's cause of death was homicide and said there would be a murder charge.
She identified the suspect as Jarques Ratliff, 51, and said there was an "association" between Ratliff, who is also black, and Fortune, but would not elaborate further.
"Additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence," Brackney said, adding that they had interviewed 15 people in the case.
Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC that she cried when police called to update her about the arrest, saying: "I guess I do feel like a little sigh of relief...like a little bit of peace just come over me."
"I just hope that they've got the right person," she added.
The arrest of a suspect followed weeks of what Spivey and residents in Jackson described as relative silence and inaction from local officials.
Combined with the grim nature of Fortune's death and Mississippi's history of racial lynchings, the lack of information about the case had left the community in shock and fear.
Spivey earlier told the BBC she had tried contacting Jackson police several times over the last two weeks, leaving multiple voicemails, and had not heard back.
Brackney addressed the family's frustration on Friday, saying: "We have been in constant contact with the mother and the stepfather, as well as the biological father, throughout this case."
A letter Spivey wrote to officials about the limited communication and speed of the investigation was read during a public city meeting on Tuesday - moments before Jackson police made the announcement about a possible homicide.
"I'm kind of like in awe," Spivey said. "Like, I can't believe it. That was quick."
Earlier this month, Fortune's death was described by a member of the US Congress as part of a pattern of "possible modern-day lynchings".
More than 50 members of Congress this week sent a letter, external to the FBI and justice department, saying they were "extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in numerous states" and calling for an independent investigation into the deaths of black Americans.
"The series of deaths raise significant suspicion of foul play given the role of lynching in our nation's history," it states.
So far this year there have been at least 10 reported hangings of black people in the US, they said, adding that there were more than 70 lynchings documented between 2000 and 2025. Warning: This story contains distressing details
Police in the US state of Mississippi have arrested a man in connection with the death of a black woman found hanged from a tree, and say they could soon take more people into custody.
Tasia Fortune's body was found in the lot of an abandoned home in Jackson in August, but police only announced they were treating her death as a possible homicide earlier this week.
"That arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion," Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said on Friday. "This case remains active."
Fortune's death has worried locals in Jackson, a majority-black city in a state with a history of racial violence and lynching.
During Friday's news conference, Brackney said the medical examiner had confirmed Fortune's cause of death was homicide and said there would be a murder charge.
She identified the suspect as Jarques Ratliff, 51, and said there was an "association" between Ratliff, who is also black, and Fortune, but would not elaborate further.
"Additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence," Brackney said, adding that they had interviewed 15 people in the case.
Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, told the BBC that she cried when police called to update her about the arrest, saying: "I guess I do feel like a little sigh of relief...like a little bit of peace just come over me."
"I just hope that they've got the right person," she added.
The arrest of a suspect followed weeks of what Spivey and residents in Jackson described as relative silence and inaction from local officials.
Combined with the grim nature of Fortune's death and Mississippi's history of racial lynchings, the lack of information about the case had left the community in shock and fear.
Spivey earlier told the BBC she had tried contacting Jackson police several times over the last two weeks, leaving multiple voicemails, and had not heard back.
Brackney addressed the family's frustration on Friday, saying: "We have been in constant contact with the mother and the stepfather, as well as the biological father, throughout this case."
A letter Spivey wrote to officials about the limited communication and speed of the investigation was read during a public city meeting on Tuesday - moments before Jackson police made the announcement about a possible homicide.
"I'm kind of like in awe," Spivey said. "Like, I can't believe it. That was quick."
Earlier this month, Fortune's death was described by a member of the US Congress as part of a pattern of "possible modern-day lynchings".
More than 50 members of Congress this week sent a letter, external to the FBI and justice department, saying they were "extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in numerous states" and calling for an independent investigation into the deaths of black Americans.
"The series of deaths raise significant suspicion of foul play given the role of lynching in our nation's history," it states.
So far this year there have been at least 10 reported hangings of black people in the US, they said, adding that there were more than 70 lynchings documented between 2000 and 2025.
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u/Key_Cardiologist6232 5h ago
I was able to see the article by backing out and then opening it back up and scrolling down quickly. Paywall disappeared after just one time. But it is a pain in the neck.
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14h ago edited 14h ago
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u/meatball77 13h ago
Actually deserves mentioning in a hanging case. That this wasn't racially motivated as suspected.
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u/rfulleffect 13h ago
|The arrest of a suspect followed weeks of what Spivey and residents in Jackson described as relative silence and inaction from local officials.
Doubt
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u/str4ngerc4t 6h ago
They needed to wait for the medical examiner to determine manner of death. They can’t arrest someone for murder until the death is confirmed to be a homicide.
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u/Unfair_Ability3977 5h ago
Yet they also publicly stated they were in constant contact with the family.
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u/Minarosebbyy 14h ago
Wow shocker
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u/MasterOfBunnies 14h ago
What exactly are you implying?
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u/Kookerpea 13h ago
Most people are killed by someone of their own race. Most women and men are killed by men
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u/wrenblaze 14h ago
So far this year there have been at least 10 reported hangings of black people in the US, they said, adding that there were more than 70 lynchings documented between 2000 and 2025.
What the fuck
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u/nummeh 14h ago
Of the 10 this was the only one being ruled a homicide, the rest were suicides.
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u/CoolmanWilkins 13h ago edited 13h ago
Honestly the 70 number seemed crazy so I had to look up where that was coming from. The number comes from an org named JULIAN and is accessible here: https://www.julianfreedom.org/database-and-resources . The number is just of 'suspected' lynching by their definition.
They define a "modern day lynching" (MDL) as a "multiple perpetrator homicide, targeting a group or individual, driven by race, gender identity, or other bias with the intent of causing community terror or carrying out an extrajudicial homicide for a perceived threat or wrongdoing."
So it includes things like prison gang murders (since prison gangs are often based on racial lines) where two people murdered someone else.
70 over 25 years on its own isn't crazy, especially when you consider 20k people are murdered every year in the US. One big thing to note (besides the fact that Americans like to murder each other, for any reason) is probably the low, low standard of police detective work in many areas of the US. If you've ever dealt with rural cops then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
But also relates to how JULIAN defines the 'suspected MDL' statistic in their reporting, some of the cases look a lot less likely than others. They don't even seem to stick to their own definition at all times, such as when it is not clear who the perpetrator is or including cases with just one perpetrator. So I'd take the number with a grain of salt. But you can see in the report that hate crimes leading to murder are still happening though, with cops being some of the participants.
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u/EnvironmentalWin1277 10h ago
By my figures there are 35 self hangings every day in the US, That surprised me and then it didn't.
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u/Raintoastgw 14h ago
Also, not that it makes it any less tragic, but the man that did this one was also black
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u/A1sauc3d 14h ago edited 13h ago
And this woman was hanged by another black man, so it’s not a “lynching” either, is it? I thought lynching meant it was racially motivated. Not trying to down play very real racism, just not getting why they’re mentioning lynching in the same sentence as a bunch of suicides and a non racially motivated murder. Seems intentionally deceptive. I guess they didn’t know for sure if this instance was or wasn’t before the arrest. But it seems weird to still be calling it a lynching at this point.
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u/Lifeboatb 8h ago
“Lynching” is supposed to mean a killing outside of the legal system (usually by an angry mob), but I thought for years that it only meant forcibly hanging someone, so I guess sometimes other people use it that way. But it’s been done to suspected criminals without racial motivations, for example this California case, which was famous in its day. The crime victim and the suspected perps were all white.
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u/BriarsandBrambles 5h ago edited 5h ago
A lynching is any extralegal (outside the law) killing done by a large group of people.
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u/SpareEconomy1849 11h ago
Because the writer is trying to justify their job and create/embellish the story
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13h ago edited 12h ago
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u/AceMcVeer 13h ago
No it wasn't. That's an absolute lie. Show me a source where they officially labeled it a suicide
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u/wrenblaze 14h ago
Good, now I feel better
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u/ArentWright 14h ago
… the rest were ruled suicides. Come on now
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u/Miserable-Land-9203 13h ago
Just my totally anecdotal take here, but I was a paramedic for a little over a decade. Lots of people commit suicide. Lots of people commit suicide by hanging themselves. Plenty of them choose to do so outside. I know because I responded to multiple suicides by hanging.
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u/Turcey 13h ago
Don't do that. Do you have proof they're not suicides? Have you done any research?
There are a thousand easier ways to murder someone than hanging. It's not impossible, but for a single murderer, it's highly improbable. And if you want to say there's a group of white guys running around lynching black people, that's a conspiracy theory that not even worth entertaining.
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u/serial_crusher 12h ago
What are we counting as a lynching in this context? The suspect in this case, for example, doesn’t really fit the usual profile of a white supremacist.
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u/ripyourlungsdave 12h ago edited 12h ago
You have to keep in mind, there are almost 400 million people in this country. That's actually a shockingly low number for what I would have expected.
Still inexcusably high as long as it's above 0, but compared to a population this size, 70 is a very, very, very low number. Especially over something like 25 years.
If this comment upsets you, I'm worried you might literally not know how numbers work.
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u/Lower_Pension_2469 12h ago
Idk why we have to cater to idiots like they're little kids with no emotional regulation so I'll just put it plainly: 70 lynchings in 25 years ain't shit compared to the amount of other murders and violence inflicted on people every day. Not only that, we don't even know if all of these lynchings were racially motivated, especially since this one fucking wasn't and it's almost like whoever wrote the article is manipulating words for shock value.
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u/yungbillcosbii 14h ago
Of those ten I believe 9 were suicides...
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u/iJuddles 14h ago
You mean they were reported as suicides. You’d better be showing me some video of them hanging themselves if you’re gonna say that. Where’s the flock footage?
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u/AirplaneSpaghetti 14h ago
You're acting like hanging isn't a common suicide method. It's well documented as one of the most common methods. No one's going to meet your absurd criteria of needing video proof for every case.
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u/AlexandbroTheGreat 14h ago
Does not seem like an especially easy way to commit homicide, certainly not in a way that doesn't leave a ton of physical evidence of struggle.
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u/czechereds 14h ago
The notion that homicide detectives and coroners are unlikely to be able to differentiate the vast majority of hangings as suicide or murder is laughable.
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u/blueskies8484 14h ago
I’ve actually read about almost all of the cases and my takeaway was probably around half were actually suicides and around half were at least questionable enough to warrant further investigation.
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u/PetalumaPegleg 14h ago
Correct. I haven't read them all, but I understand some did legitimately appear to be suicide. But several did not. And it's very dubious as to why they were brushed under the carpet
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u/dhahahhsbdhrhr 13h ago
I mean is 70 ish in 25 years really that bad? Obviously any at all is fucked up but considering this country's past and present less then 100 in 25 years seems pretty good.
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u/PollutionAway9782 12h ago
I like how black people are lynching other black people now. did he do it to throw off the police.
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u/BobbyDukeArts 9h ago
Lynching definition- the extrajudicial killing of a person by an angry mob, without a lawful trial. It does not mean hanging.
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u/psychophant_ 13h ago edited 13h ago
Ok but let’s put that into perspective as I’ve had black people I know recently straight saying some racist stuff about white people regarding this.
Let’s assume all 70 were lynchings.
There are 41 million black Americans.
That means 1 in 585,000 were lynched in the past quarter century.
There have been far, far more black-on-black gang related murders during that time period.
But no one is claiming that America has a gang problem.
In fact, since it’s coming out that the person who killed this poor woman may also be black, I wonder how many of the unsolved lynchings were also done by a black person using it as a cover knowing everyone would be looking for a white perpetrator.
Is racism awful? Yes. Will it ever FULLY go away? No.
Is 1 lynching too much? Yes.
What I’m trying to say is, the vast vast majority of white Americans are not racist. My coworker now feels unsafe around white people because of these lynchings. But statistically, they should feel less safe around other black people. The reason they don’t is because of the news cycle driving hate and separation.
Keep things in perspective people. Just like it’s wrong to hate all Muslims for 9/11, please don’t sour on white people because of what a very very tiny minority do. Remember, it was white abolitionists who freed the slaves. Not all white people owned slaves. Africans sold slaves. There were black plantation owners. The world is messy and not black and white and all people are capable of greatness and horrible deeds regardless of color.
Reach across the aisle and let the other know that you don’t fear the minority who perpetrate hate but stand with the majority who are good and kind.
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u/fredl0bster 13h ago
Careful now, presenting nuance and appealing for others to critically think instead of amplifying mob outrage is pretty sus round these parts.
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u/Love_like_fools 10h ago
You're forgetting one important detail in your attempt to bring 'perspective', and that ironically is perspective: most victims of gang violence are gang members themselves (there's studies about this). In other words, you have less to fear from gangs if you're not part of one yourself.
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u/hyenamonkey 9h ago
What's sad is this girl died in such a horrific way and people have shamelessly used her death to further their own agendas. All I've heard for weeks is "black people are being hung from TREES" with the implication that it's white people doing the hanging when there's absolutely no evidence of that being the case. All to spread division and get sociopolitical points so they can be the "winner" for the day. They don't care about this girl, her story, her life, or her death. They only care about what her death can mean for their side. It's all just so pathetic
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u/Lopsided-Total-5560 6h ago
For this to be a hate crime, Clayton Bigsby has to have committed the crime.
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u/Aeon_Mortuum 8h ago
Fuck everyone in this thread using her death to push ANY agenda. Identity politics melted your brains
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u/IndependentOk9075 4h ago
The entire reason this case is national news is agenda driven identity politics.
You can’t be surprised to have some backlash when the script is flipped.
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u/cjacksen 14h ago
I'm glad an arrest was made. Early reports really tried the "possible suicide" angle and its such shit.
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u/Numerous-Amphibian85 14h ago edited 14h ago
Not everything is a conspiracy.
“This week, more than 50 members of Congress sent a letter to the FBI and justice department, saying they were "extremely alarmed by reports of black people found hanging from trees in numerous states" and calling for an independent investigation into suspicious deaths of black Americans.
So far this year there have been at least 10 reported hangings of black people in the US, they said, adding that there were more than 70 lynchings documented between 2000 and 2025.”
10 reported instances of black people hanged from trees just in these last 9 months? That looks a lot like a trend.
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u/MasterOfBunnies 14h ago
How many people of the same color being murdered in the same manner, a color of which is often associated with this particular heinous means, would it take for you to concede trend? Or, is it more likely that you're just happy to see it happening?
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u/ConfinedCrow 9h ago
Great, which ideology are we gonna use this death for this time?
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u/str4ngerc4t 6h ago
It’s just another dead black woman at the hands of a black man. Unfortunately far too common to matter politically. They are not the right race, age, or socioeconomic class for it to matter to the public at large. Her story is going to fade away over the next news cycle or 2.
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u/gymleader_michael 5h ago
If I'm not mistaken, most murder victims are killed by someone of the same race. Might as well just say, another woman killed by a man.
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u/machine_six 5h ago
There are an average of 47-60 people murdered in the US every day. This one only got attention because of the potential political implication, true, but do you really think fifty-something murder victims should each be dominating the news cycle every day?
It's tragic, but come on.
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u/Conjurepapi 12h ago
Says MORE than 50 members of Congress sent that letter to the FBI and justice department, saying they were "extremely alarmed by black people found hanging from trees in numerous states.” Everyone saying he’s being scape goated (and due to the lack of communication/transparency/the admittedly swift capture of a suspect….I want to review the evidence connecting him to her.) Reports say her mother doesn’t know him and can’t find any friends that do and if they say he’s some rando druggy that slept behind the local Walmart that stalked her since kindergarten or something else stupidly unbelievable then you have your answer…..if you knew people would think he’s a fall guy why the fuck would you withhold their relationship? We are being told there are more arrests pending which naturally better be the case because the fire department already admitted to needing a ladder truck to get her down…not regular equipment or fire truck but if the investigation is pending why even mention her relationship to him and not explain it. I’d just say we have a suspect. I want to FOIA everything and watch this trial. Does anyone know if the county still does live zoom court because I will be attending and has he been arraigned because I’d like to watch that as well. I’m not totally anti law enforcement but I’m not going to act like there isn’t serious corruption and crimes at levels unseen since watergate and ww2 in local state and federal government right now.
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u/mvincen95 14h ago edited 14h ago
As a Mississippi resident I want to emphasize that the whole state is misunderstood. When people make fun of the state I don’t think they realize that they are themselves often being racist. When they say how stupid and ignorant everyone is please understand you are talking about the state with the highest percentage of Black people.
It’s obviously not a perfect place, but the lynching scenario was never realistic.
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u/Xedeth 14h ago
Mississippian here.
That was the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read. This state is a SHIT HOLE. Why? Because post-slavery black men and women were subjected to extreme prejudice and kept from any opportunities subtly, instead of it being in the open. And they still are today!!
And on the other hand, there's a shit load of poor white people that have had their pockets raided from years and years and years of Republican politicians (that they voted for. Why? Because Republicans appeal to racists.)
This state is unsaveable. But calling a state names is not calling the majority race those names lolwut.
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u/Tenoch_12 14h ago
What are you blabbing about? From what I read in the article, she was lynched. And it's not a racist to say Mississippi is the least educated state in the union. These are facts.
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u/Poorlydrawncat 13h ago
By definition, this is not a lynching. Heinous murder yes, but not a lynching.
Based on the identity of the suspect it doesn’t even seem to be racially motivated.
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u/puke_AND_rally_ 14h ago
Hopefully the family receives justice. RIP