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.
