Mississippi police make 2nd arrest in death of Black woman found hanging from tree, seek 3rd suspect

Police and the court clerk said Wednesday that they didn’t know if Lloyd has a lawyer.

Fortune’s mother Christy Spivey, who attended the hearing, said afterward that she was ecstatic to see arrests made in her daughter’s death. She said neither she nor several of her daughter’s friends knew Lloyd, and she cautioned that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“My family is not the only family that this is affecting,” Spivey said of the defendants’ families. “I feel for them as well. The only difference is that mine can never come back.”

“I’ll never truly have peace,” she said.

Ratliff was arrested in September on murder charges. He pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bond. His lawyer, Toney Baldwin, hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment.

Police said in a statement that they issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect, but gave no details about that person’s identity or alleged link to Fortune’s death. They also said they expect to issue additional warrants.

After Ratliff’s arrest, Jackson’s police chief, RaShall Brackney, said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune, but she didn’t elaborate.

Although police haven’t suggested a possible motive for the killing, the case has attracted widespread attention because the manner of death recalled lynchings in the Southern state.

A Kentucky native, Fortune had four children and had been living in Jackson for about a decade, relatives said.

Spivey previously said her daughter struggled with homelessness in recent years, and that she wasn’t sure where her daughter was living at the time of her death. She said that before her death, her daughter had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

Sophie Bates, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Mississippi police make 2nd arrest in death of Black woman found hanging from tree, seek 3rd suspect

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