By ED WHITE and SOPHIE BATES
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Investigators believe Tasia Fortune was already dead before the Black woman’s body was hanged from a tree behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer, a detective testified Friday.
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The hanging of Tasia Fortune’s body, which was found on Aug. 3, was “staged,” Jackson police Det. Samuel Dukes testified, citing the medical examiner’s opinion.
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 and issued a warrant for the arrest of a third person.
Dukes also testified that the motive for the killing appears to have been a drug dispute. He said interviews with others revealed that Fortune fought hard before she was killed.
The case has attracted widespread attention because the scene recalled lynchings in the Southern state, which has a long and troubled history of racial violence.
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Authorities haven’t said why they believe the defendants hanged Fortune’s body after she was already dead.
Dukes testified at a hearing for Jarques Ratliff, 51, who was the first person arrested in the case earlier this month. Ratliff, who has pleaded not guilty, remains in custody in the Hinds County jail without bond.
The purpose of the hearing, which will resume Sept. 30, is to determine if there’s enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury for a possible indictment.
Police arrested the second defendant, 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr., this week.
During Friday’s hearing, Ratliff said that Fortune had been a friend of his.
Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, has said her daughter, who had four children, struggled with homelessness in recent years, and that she wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death. She said Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.
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White reported from Detroit.