Tasia Fortune’s hanging was ‘staged’ after her death in a drug dispute, Mississippi police say
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer, a detective testified Friday.
The Aug. 3 discovery of the body — Fortune was Black — stoked fear and drew widespread attention because the scene recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state, which has a long and troubled history of racial violence.
Authorities haven’t disclosed the exact cause of Fortune’s death, but they did rule it a homicide and have arrested two men, both of them Black, on murder charges. They also issued an arrest warrant for a third, unnamed, person.
During a hearing Friday to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant sending a grand jury the case against the first man arrested, Jarques Ratliff, Jackson police Detective Samuel Dukes testified that the hanging was “staged,” citing the medical examiner’s opinion.
