Jackson police fail Tasia Fortune by withholding basic facts
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
After Tasia Fortune was found hanging in a tree, the Jackson Police Department prioritized a "staged" narrative over the cause of death, leaving her family without answers.
The Jackson Police Department is wrong to prioritize the theater of a crime scene over the basic facts of a death. For weeks, the agency has leaned on a single word—"staged"—to define the homicide of Tasia Fortune. They have used that word to steer the public conversation away from racial terror. In doing so, they have left a mother in the dark about how her daughter actually died. A police department that manages a narrative before it provides a cause of death fails the victim and the family.
Where are the basic facts?
Tasia Fortune was 29 years old. She was a mother of four. In August, her body was found hanging from a tree at an abandoned home in Jackson, Mississippi. The BBC reported that Fortune was homeless at the time of her death. Her four sons now live with family and friends.
The Jackson Police Department quickly stated that the medical examiner determined the death was a homicide. They told the public that "the scene and the hanging were staged." Police said Fortune was killed somewhere else before her body was placed in the tree.
Christy Spivey, Fortune's mother, did not find peace in these details. She said, "Still no cause of death, no date of death - nothing." She asked, "What actually killed her?" Spivey told the BBC that she has more questions now than she did before the police called her. The JPD provided a conclusion about the staging of the body, but they withheld the medical reality of the killing.
The department calculated its use of history
The JPD's focus on the "staged" nature of the hanging is a response to the geography of the crime. Jackson is a majority-black city. Mississippi has a history of racial violence and lynchings.
This case shares a mechanism with the Emmett Till murder. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till was abducted and lynched in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. By placing Fortune's body in a tree, the killers evoked that same history of racial trauma.
The Guardian reported that an autopsy concluded the hanging was staged. Police stated that Fortune was dead before her body was placed at the scene. By emphasizing the staging, the JPD attempted to decouple the image of the hanging from the history of lynching. They sought to tell the city that this was not a hate crime before telling a mother how her daughter died.
Did a drug dispute cause the death?
The JPD has replaced the image of the lynching with the narrative of a drug dispute. Police told a court that Fortune's death likely resulted from a dispute over stolen drugs. CNN reported on the police statements regarding the drug allegations.
Three Black suspects face murder charges in the case. Police arrested Jarques Ratliff, Earnest Lloyd Jr., and Eric Clark. WLBT reported on the charges against the three men.
Ratliff pleaded not guilty and stated in court that he and Fortune were friends. Spivey acknowledged that her daughter struggled with addiction. She said, "If she still was doing drugs, which I'm sure she probably was, she still didn't deserve to be done like that. Nobody does." The JPD's insistence on the drug motive serves to close the case in the public mind. However, the official narrative provides more questions than answers.
The failure of the official record
The Jackson Police Department would argue that the "staged" label was necessary to prevent community panic. In a city with a history of lynchings, a body in a tree suggests a hate crime. By identifying the suspects as Black and the motive as a drug dispute, police sought to stop a narrative of racial terror before it sparked violence.
This logic fails when the department cannot provide the cause of death. A label is not a fact. To tell a mother her daughter's death was a "staged" scene while refusing to say what killed her is not public safety. It is a failure of transparency.
The JPD is managing this high-profile case while facing staffing shortages and past controversies over use of force. The BBC noted that lawmakers have already demanded federal probes. Given the department's history of federal scrutiny, federal civil rights investigators will likely open a formal inquiry into the handling of this homicide. Yet the most basic medical facts remain hidden.
The JPD treated the crime scene as a public relations problem to be managed rather than a death to be explained. They provided a conclusion about the "staging" to soothe the city, but they left the mother to wonder about the cause of death. A police department that manages the narrative before the facts fails the victim. The JPD owes Christy Spivey a date and a cause of death before it offers more theories on the theater of the crime.
Sources
- BBC: Mother of woman found hanging in tree shocked as police say body was staged
- The Guardian: Third person arrested in death of Tasia Fortune, as police say hanging was staged
- CNN: Tasia Fortune’s hanging was ‘staged’ after her death in a drug dispute, Mississippi police say
- WLBT: Second suspect arrested, charged with murder in Tasia Fortune investigation
- BBC: Mother of woman found hanging in tree shocked as police say body was staged