Crime & Justice · Sep 12, 2026Tasia Fortune Homicide Arrest; Democrats Seek FBI Review

KEMETIC MINDS
Strange Fruit — September 12, 2026

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Case: Tasia Fortune, Jackson, Mississippi

Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman, was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant house in Jackson, Mississippi, last month. On Friday, Jackson police announced an arrest in her death, and the state medical examiner’s office ruled the death a homicide. ^[1]

Police chief RaShall Brackney-Wheelock said officers obtained search and arrest warrants for Jacques Ratliff and arrested him when they found him walking on the street. Brackney-Wheelock said the homicide determination came from the medical examiner’s office Thursday evening. ^[1]

Police say they do not yet have a motive. At a Friday news conference, Brackney-Wheelock said the suspect is a 51-year-old Black man who knew Fortune. “We cannot speculate by the nature or the manner in which Ms. Fortune was killed, beyond what has been officially determined by the medical examiner,” she said. ^[1]

The family says the answers have not caught up. Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, said that after police told her of the arrest, “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.'” Spivey said police did not share a motive or say whether DNA led to the arrest, that she did not know the man arrested, and that the family was “in disbelief” and “shock.” “We still don’t have a lot of answers,” she said. ^[1]

Brackney-Wheelock said the investigation remains active and more arrests are likely, and that the department understands the case is being viewed through a broader lens given Mississippi’s history of racist violence and lynchings — a history examined in Tate Reeves Says Don’t Cause Division, But History Shows Mississippi Is Divided. Fortune died less than a year after two other Mississippi hanging deaths: Trey Reed, a 21-year-old Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s in Vicksburg. ^[1]

Case: 21-Year-Old Atlanta Man, Cobb County, Georgia

A 21-year-old Atlanta man who had gone missing was later found hanging from a tree in a Cobb County park. Officials ruled out foul play and deemed the death a suicide, according to Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, as reported Friday. ^[2]

That finding is one of several recent cases in which law enforcement or medical examiners ruled a hanging death of a Black person a suicide, the report states, while at least one very recent death remains under a homicide investigation. ^[2]

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). ^[2]

Democrats want a federal review of every such death. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., spearheaded a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, signed by Pressley, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and about 50 Democrats. It demanded a “thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States,” arguing federal agencies have failed for decades to adequately investigate such deaths. ^[2]

Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X that “this year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S.” and said she signed the letter to address “these widespread modern-day lynchings” and “this racial terror”; she alleges systemic racial bias at the agencies. Pressley wrote that “Black folks are being found hanged in America” and that “we cannot stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country.” Earlier Kemetic Mind reporting, Strange Fruit: 10 Hanging Deaths and Families Still Waiting, tracked the families behind such cases. ^[2]

How to Protect Yourself and Your Family

These are general, actionable safety steps — not specific to any case above.

Before Anything Happens

• Share your live location with a trusted person — Use a phone’s built-in location-sharing (Find My / Google Maps location sharing) with at least one person you trust, especially when traveling alone, at festivals, or in an unfamiliar city.
• Agree on a check-in schedule — Set a specific time to check in by text or call when going somewhere new — a missed check-in is the earliest possible warning sign, and it only works if someone is expecting it.
• Keep a written record of plans — Tell someone the specific address, event, or route you’re heading to, and who you expect to be with.

The First 24-48 Hours of a Disappearance

• Do not wait 24 hours to report — There is no official waiting period to file a missing-person report in the United States — contact local police immediately. The first hours are the most critical window for locating someone.
• File with local police, not just online — Go in person or call the non-emergency line of the police department covering the area the person was last seen, and ask for a case number.
• Contact the Black and Missing Foundation — BAMFI helps families get missing-persons cases visibility and media coverage: 1-877-972-2634.
• Submit the case to NamUs — The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (namus.gov) is the free national database law enforcement and families can both use to search and cross-reference cases.
• Preserve digital evidence — Screenshot the person’s last social media activity, save texts, and note their phone’s last known location before it might be wiped or reset.

Staying Safe Day to Day

• Trust your instincts in unfamiliar situations — If a situation feels wrong, leave — don’t wait for proof.
• Travel in groups when possible — At festivals, parks, or unfamiliar areas, especially at night, stay with people you know.
• Keep emergency contacts accessible — Store ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts directly on your phone’s lock screen.

What This Roundup Does and Doesn’t Show

Each case above is reported exactly as documented in its cited source — nothing here claims these cases are connected to one another or part of any organized pattern. Where a family or community disputes an official finding, that dispute is stated as a dispute, not as fact.

Track every current Black missing-persons case we know of, plotted on one map, on our standing Missing People in the United States page.

References

1. Ibtimes. (2026, September 11). Tasia Fortune: Man Arrested After Black Woman Found Hanging From Tree in Mississippi Last Month in Death Now Ruled Homicide. https://www.ibtimes.sg/tasia-fortune-man-arrested-after-black-woman-found-hanging-tree-mississippi-last-month-death-93689 ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d ↩e
2. Yahoo. (2026, September 11). AOC’s ‘modern-day lynchings’ claim torn to shreds online as Black hanging case findings tell a different story. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/aoc-modern-day-lynchings-claim-160423919.html ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d ↩e