Fortune’s death sparked widespread outrage last month, with many people drawing comparisons to lynchings that occurred historically in the South.
Investigators believe Tasia Fortune was killed in a drug dispute before her body was hanged from a tree in Jackson, Miss., last month in a crime that shocked the nation.
Fortune’s death sparked widespread outrage, with many people drawing comparisons to lynchings that occurred historically in the South. In light of Fortune’s death and other recent cases of black people found hanging, 59 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to the Department of Justice and FBI demanding federal investigations into the incidents, citing concerns about possible racially-motivated lynchings.
But Jackson Police Detective Samuel Dukes testified Friday that investigators believe the hanging was “staged,” with the medical examiner having found she was dead before she was hanged from the tree.
Dukes said authorities believe the motive for killing Fortune appears to be a drug dispute, and noted interviews indicated she fought hard before she was killed. Authorities, however, have not said why Fortune’s body was hanged after she was dead.
Police have arrested two men on murder charges. There is a warrant out for a third suspect’s arrest.
In this case, the two suspects in custody and the victim are all black.
The two men arrested in connection with the case are 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff — who pleaded not guilty — and 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr., who was arrested earlier this week. Ratliff currently remains in custody without bond.
Dukes revealed this new information about the case while testifying at a hearing on Friday to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send Ratliff’s case to a grand jury.