Sept. 24, 2026
Second Man Arrested, Another Sought, After Murder Of Black Woman Found Hanging From Tree
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RSS Feed Mississippi Police have arrested a second man in the death of a black woman found hanging from a tree, and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect. Jackson police arrested 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging behind an abandoned home in the city on Aug. 3rd. Authorities say while the U.S. Marshalls are bringing in a third man, there are even more arrest warrants expected in this horrific case. Fortune’s mother said neither man is familiar to her nor Tasia’s friends, but that they both should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Thursday, September 24th. A black woman found hanging from a tree in Mississippi. And now not one, but two black men are under arrest for murder. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. I mention that because the local news as well as the sheriff's department down there wanted to make that point. Yes. That the two people under arrest are black men.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Yes, because we are talking about Jackson, Mississippi. And yes, it does require, I believe, that clarification just in terms of reaction to arrests being made.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: And that's fair.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, with that state's history and certainly what's going on with Nolan Wells, there's a lot, and there has been historically a lot. There were even two hangings that were recently ruled suicides in that state. So yes, this is sensitive. And needs to be handled very carefully. And details are important.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: And right now, details are few and far between. Because Robes, I said two are under arrest and there could be more. We can get into that in a moment. But Robes, this story isn't. over and we still aren't clear on what these relationships were why and even how she died.
00:01:24
Speaker 2: That i was just going to go there we don't actually have cause of death we know that 29 year old tasia fortune mother of four was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home in jackson mississippi And her body has been described as being in a state of decomposition. So they have been very careful not to say the hanging death or a woman who was murdered and hanged. They've been very careful in how they describe this, her death and she was found hanging. They haven't described how she died, when she died. and frankly, at whose hands she died. We know that the most recent arrest, 25-year-old Ernest Lloyd Jr., his arrest comes, what, about a week or two weeks after the first arrest, a 51-year-old man, Jarquez, who goes by Jock Ratliff, and one's 25, one's 51. They're not related. It's very confusing. And even her own mother has said, and we'll get into some of the things her mom had to say, which were quite remarkable, actually, but neither one of these men were known to her or were known to any of her daughter's friends. No one knew who these guys were, basically.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: How were they putting it after the first arrest? The authorities said they How did they describe the relationship? That was a weird word they were using.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: Did they say acquaintance?
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Was it acquaintance? It was something that just didn't make sense. It was bizarre. But they would never describe how these two knew each other, why they would know each other at all. No.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: And the only details that we received on this latest arrest were that investigators said that it was witnesses. Witnesses to what? We don't know, but witnesses who led them to Lloyd. Now, they say their head, this, and I've told you about this. I checked, and I think everyone's just going off of this one station's reporting, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. But they say that police said that Fortune- And this man, this latest arrest, Ernest Lloyd Jr., had a physical altercation, quote, days or minutes before she was killed. Literally makes no sense.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Okay, and this might possibly be just a typo, but this is the station quoting somebody from?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: The police department, from the Jackson Police Department.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: That's an actual quote that came out of somebody's mouth.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: That is how it is written in the local television station.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: Days or minutes before. What could the typo even be?
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Maybe they meant to say hours or minutes and accidentally said days or minutes.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: Maybe that makes sense.
00:04:02
Speaker 2: I think so. I think the bottom line is multiple witnesses told police... that Tasia Fortune got into a physical altercation with this man who was just arrested shortly before she was killed, maybe is the best way to put it. And police did say that Lloyd hanged Fortune with a black cable cord. So they are pinning the hanging of her on... On to Lloyd. He is charged with first degree murder, but they're not necessarily saying that's how she died. But that was the first time we heard it was a black cable cord. And they did attribute that to him.
00:04:48
Speaker 1: But Ratliff. What part? They weren't specific when he was arrested attributing anything to him, right?
00:04:54
Speaker 2: They did not. They were very vague. I mean, this is vague enough. They were even more vague just saying that they were a known acquaintance. But that was it. And they didn't say or give any role that he may have played in the death. Now, they always have said they believe there were multiple. They were looking for more suspects. So we always knew that it wasn't Ratliff who acted alone. We just don't know what role each one played. But yes, not only did they say a third arrest is expected soon, but they said there could be more arrests. They said police said additional warrants were are forthcoming. So they've already obtained one arrest warrant for this third person whom they have not identified, but they did say the Jackson Police Department said they've turned over this arrest warrant to U.S.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: Marshals.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: So they know who they're looking for, and they are actively trying to apprehend this person. But after saying that, they then said additional warrants, plural, are forthcoming. So it looks like there could be more arrests beyond this third suspect.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: What happened to this woman?
00:05:57
Speaker 2: It's frightening to think about.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: We're talking about at least three men, but possibly up to four or five, involved in the murder of this 29-year-old mother of four, and nobody understands how she knew any of them.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: Correct. And just a few weeks prior, had been with her family at a family reunion, talking about starting her own cleaning company. She had a tough life, and we've done stories on her before. And she really had this incredible story where she was a rising track star. She was so intelligent, she skipped her junior year of high school. And look, she ended up with four children at the age of 29. And she was experiencing homelessness. She was living in and out of her car. She was struggling, but she was pulling herself back together when this happened. And I thought this was interesting. We've heard Tasia Fortune's mom speaking out quite a bit on this. And she's talked about the loss and the emptiness and how much her daughter was loved. She has attended all of these hearings. She attended this hearing for Lloyd. And she cautioned the media, because everyone wants to talk to her. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And this was her quote. My family is not the only family that this is affecting. I feel for them as well. The only difference is that mine can never come back. She was talking about the family members of these men.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: How old is she? Does it have an age next to her?
00:07:24
Speaker 2: I don't know her age. She looks like she's in her 50s or 60s.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: She's speaking like somebody who's been there, done that. Like, Been around, been through some things, experienced a lot, understands pain a lot, babe. That's impressive.
00:07:40
Speaker 2: Yes, she talked, she is, and it did seem like if she and Tayshia's father aren't still together, They're still friendly and they have talked together and sat down together. But she talked about being their interracial. She's white. He's black. And how difficult that was for them and their family, how they received death threats, how they were always under suspicion and folks would call police on them. And that Tasia grew up in that environment and was part of the reason why she wanted to get away. I believe that she was raised in Kentucky and moved around. to of all places, Mississippi, and had been living there for the past 10 years. But yes, she has described a very difficult and troubled life that she and her and Tayshia's father experienced and certainly that Tayshia herself experienced. But I just thought that was kind of an unbelievable statement following the arrests of the men who not only were responsible, at least according to police, for her daughter's death, but for displaying her body the way they did.
00:08:38
Speaker 1: Which is something I would really hope Somebody can explain why in God's name you would do that. Unless you do think it is to throw authorities off your scent, potentially, if they're thinking they're only looking for white men who might do something like this. Racist. That's silly, though, Robes. Why would you draw attention to someone you just murdered in any way? That doesn't make sense at all. Right.
00:09:05
Speaker 2: Most people are looking for ways to hide a body, to bury a body, to make sure that no one ever finds a body.
00:09:11
Speaker 1: Hey, look, there's been a murder. That doesn't make any sense.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: It really doesn't. Now, this was behind an abandoned home. And obviously her body had actually been there for a while before they found her. But none of this adds up. And so, yes. There are plenty of people out there who want some answers, most notably Tasia Fortune's parent, but certainly the community, folks who live in the area. This is deeply disturbing on a number of levels. And also because this comes, this hanging death or this death that led to her being found strung up on a tree. Yeah, this isn't an anomaly. Her death comes just one year after two hanging deaths. We'll tell you about that when we come back. Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. A second man has been arrested for the murder of mother of four, 29-year-old Tasia Fortune. His name is Ernest Lloyd Jr., 25 years old. We mentioned the second man The first man was arrested a few weeks ago and police have said there is an arrest warrant out for a third suspect. And they say more arrest warrants are forthcoming. So this story is far from over. But remember when this first happened on August 3rd, we were concerned and her mom was concerned that this was going to be ruled a suicide.
00:10:41
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there's reason to think that. It seems to. be a whole string of black folks who just decide to hang themselves on trees in the South here lately.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: It's bizarre.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: It's bizarre.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: And to think that the one that really, and this young man's family is still fighting for answers, still fighting for attention, for people to pay attention to 21-year-old Trey Reed. He was a black student at Delta State University. And yeah, he was found hanging from a tree. Why would a 21-year-old black student in college on his way choose that method if he were to die by suicide and his death has been ruled a suicide i.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: Guess strange things can happen babe but that is just one i am i will never understand hey but i don't know i maybe it's not on the kid's mind at that age but just wrote the Babe, I am trying to find a way. Convenience? And who wants to kill themselves in a public manner at all? Right? It's difficult.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: And look, his family has been holding press conferences. Colin Kaepernick, actually, who has been really active in some of these cases. We saw him provide the money for the second autopsy, the independent autopsy of Nolan Wells. He also funded... this young man's second autopsy in addition. But look at this point, how do you prove, how do you prove how someone died by suicide or if someone contributed to where this young man ended up, but that has got to be incredibly difficult for this family to, to, to think that their son would do something like this. And if you know your son, you're thinking there's no way that this is how he would have chosen. And so, yes, when we first heard word about Tasia Fortune, that was what her mom was saying. She would never, ever, ever leave her children. She would never do this to herself. And so at least for her, she has expressed at each of these hearings. an immense amount of relief and gratitude that there at least is some justice because for Trey Reed, their family certainly doesn't feel that way. There was also Corey's zoo, uh, Zucatus. He was actually a white man, but this was also last year in Vicksburg, Mississippi found hanging from a tree and his death was ruled a suicide as well. I don't know what it is about Mississippi and tree hangings, but clearly the history is well known. It just seems so odd that someone would choose to replicate that in order to take their own life.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: No, I guess it's possible, but I will never understand. I will never understand. But I am really, really curious in this Tasia Fortune case just what happened to her and why would up to four or five men be involved? And there's one woman's death in an area that she is not familiar with and didn't know him to frequent. And she didn't live in that area. There's what? It just doesn't make any sense.
00:13:57
Speaker 2: The only connection to that street was that one of her children's fathers lived on that street. And by the way, the day after she was found, they arrested him on non-related charges, held him for a while, I believe, with some drug charges. But he has never been named a suspect. He has been released. And meantime, now these two unknown entities are behind bars. Both of them, we should point out, were denied bond, by the way, after they made their initial court appearance. And that's exactly what should happen. And we don't know if they're cooperating with police. We don't know what they've told police. But we do know that the latest man, Lloyd, who was just arrested, this is not his first run-in. He's just 25 years old, but he has a previous aggravated assault charge with Jackson Police Department. They say he also has other charges stemming from other incidents in another county. So this is somebody who has been in trouble with the law, who law enforcement was familiar with. And that may obviously be part of the reason why they were able to find him so quickly. They knew where to find him. So we will continue to follow the developments of the story because it does appear there will be more coming soon. So we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Thursday, September 24th. A black woman found hanging from a tree in Mississippi. And now not one, but two black men are under arrest for murder. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. I mention that because the local news as well as the sheriff's department down there wanted to make that point. Yes. That the two people under arrest are black men.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Yes, because we are talking about Jackson, Mississippi. And yes, it does require, I believe, that clarification just in terms of reaction to arrests being made.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: And that's fair.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, with that state's history and certainly what's going on with Nolan Wells, there's a lot, and there has been historically a lot. There were even two hangings that were recently ruled suicides in that state. So yes, this is sensitive. And needs to be handled very carefully. And details are important.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: And right now, details are few and far between. Because Robes, I said two are under arrest and there could be more. We can get into that in a moment. But Robes, this story isn't. over and we still aren't clear on what these relationships were why and even how she died.
00:01:24
Speaker 2: That i was just going to go there we don't actually have cause of death we know that 29 year old tasia fortune mother of four was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home in jackson mississippi And her body has been described as being in a state of decomposition. So they have been very careful not to say the hanging death or a woman who was murdered and hanged. They've been very careful in how they describe this, her death and she was found hanging. They haven't described how she died, when she died. and frankly, at whose hands she died. We know that the most recent arrest, 25-year-old Ernest Lloyd Jr., his arrest comes, what, about a week or two weeks after the first arrest, a 51-year-old man, Jarquez, who goes by Jock Ratliff, and one's 25, one's 51. They're not related. It's very confusing. And even her own mother has said, and we'll get into some of the things her mom had to say, which were quite remarkable, actually, but neither one of these men were known to her or were known to any of her daughter's friends. No one knew who these guys were, basically.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: How were they putting it after the first arrest? The authorities said they How did they describe the relationship? That was a weird word they were using.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: Did they say acquaintance?
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Was it acquaintance? It was something that just didn't make sense. It was bizarre. But they would never describe how these two knew each other, why they would know each other at all. No.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: And the only details that we received on this latest arrest were that investigators said that it was witnesses. Witnesses to what? We don't know, but witnesses who led them to Lloyd. Now, they say their head, this, and I've told you about this. I checked, and I think everyone's just going off of this one station's reporting, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. But they say that police said that Fortune- And this man, this latest arrest, Ernest Lloyd Jr., had a physical altercation, quote, days or minutes before she was killed. Literally makes no sense.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Okay, and this might possibly be just a typo, but this is the station quoting somebody from?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: The police department, from the Jackson Police Department.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: That's an actual quote that came out of somebody's mouth.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: That is how it is written in the local television station.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: Days or minutes before. What could the typo even be?
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Maybe they meant to say hours or minutes and accidentally said days or minutes.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: Maybe that makes sense.
00:04:02
Speaker 2: I think so. I think the bottom line is multiple witnesses told police... that Tasia Fortune got into a physical altercation with this man who was just arrested shortly before she was killed, maybe is the best way to put it. And police did say that Lloyd hanged Fortune with a black cable cord. So they are pinning the hanging of her on... On to Lloyd. He is charged with first degree murder, but they're not necessarily saying that's how she died. But that was the first time we heard it was a black cable cord. And they did attribute that to him.
00:04:48
Speaker 1: But Ratliff. What part? They weren't specific when he was arrested attributing anything to him, right?
00:04:54
Speaker 2: They did not. They were very vague. I mean, this is vague enough. They were even more vague just saying that they were a known acquaintance. But that was it. And they didn't say or give any role that he may have played in the death. Now, they always have said they believe there were multiple. They were looking for more suspects. So we always knew that it wasn't Ratliff who acted alone. We just don't know what role each one played. But yes, not only did they say a third arrest is expected soon, but they said there could be more arrests. They said police said additional warrants were are forthcoming. So they've already obtained one arrest warrant for this third person whom they have not identified, but they did say the Jackson Police Department said they've turned over this arrest warrant to U.S.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: Marshals.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: So they know who they're looking for, and they are actively trying to apprehend this person. But after saying that, they then said additional warrants, plural, are forthcoming. So it looks like there could be more arrests beyond this third suspect.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: What happened to this woman?
00:05:57
Speaker 2: It's frightening to think about.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: We're talking about at least three men, but possibly up to four or five, involved in the murder of this 29-year-old mother of four, and nobody understands how she knew any of them.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: Correct. And just a few weeks prior, had been with her family at a family reunion, talking about starting her own cleaning company. She had a tough life, and we've done stories on her before. And she really had this incredible story where she was a rising track star. She was so intelligent, she skipped her junior year of high school. And look, she ended up with four children at the age of 29. And she was experiencing homelessness. She was living in and out of her car. She was struggling, but she was pulling herself back together when this happened. And I thought this was interesting. We've heard Tasia Fortune's mom speaking out quite a bit on this. And she's talked about the loss and the emptiness and how much her daughter was loved. She has attended all of these hearings. She attended this hearing for Lloyd. And she cautioned the media, because everyone wants to talk to her. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And this was her quote. My family is not the only family that this is affecting. I feel for them as well. The only difference is that mine can never come back. She was talking about the family members of these men.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: How old is she? Does it have an age next to her?
00:07:24
Speaker 2: I don't know her age. She looks like she's in her 50s or 60s.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: She's speaking like somebody who's been there, done that. Like, Been around, been through some things, experienced a lot, understands pain a lot, babe. That's impressive.
00:07:40
Speaker 2: Yes, she talked, she is, and it did seem like if she and Tayshia's father aren't still together, They're still friendly and they have talked together and sat down together. But she talked about being their interracial. She's white. He's black. And how difficult that was for them and their family, how they received death threats, how they were always under suspicion and folks would call police on them. And that Tasia grew up in that environment and was part of the reason why she wanted to get away. I believe that she was raised in Kentucky and moved around. to of all places, Mississippi, and had been living there for the past 10 years. But yes, she has described a very difficult and troubled life that she and her and Tayshia's father experienced and certainly that Tayshia herself experienced. But I just thought that was kind of an unbelievable statement following the arrests of the men who not only were responsible, at least according to police, for her daughter's death, but for displaying her body the way they did.
00:08:38
Speaker 1: Which is something I would really hope Somebody can explain why in God's name you would do that. Unless you do think it is to throw authorities off your scent, potentially, if they're thinking they're only looking for white men who might do something like this. Racist. That's silly, though, Robes. Why would you draw attention to someone you just murdered in any way? That doesn't make sense at all. Right.
00:09:05
Speaker 2: Most people are looking for ways to hide a body, to bury a body, to make sure that no one ever finds a body.
00:09:11
Speaker 1: Hey, look, there's been a murder. That doesn't make any sense.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: It really doesn't. Now, this was behind an abandoned home. And obviously her body had actually been there for a while before they found her. But none of this adds up. And so, yes. There are plenty of people out there who want some answers, most notably Tasia Fortune's parent, but certainly the community, folks who live in the area. This is deeply disturbing on a number of levels. And also because this comes, this hanging death or this death that led to her being found strung up on a tree. Yeah, this isn't an anomaly. Her death comes just one year after two hanging deaths. We'll tell you about that when we come back. Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. A second man has been arrested for the murder of mother of four, 29-year-old Tasia Fortune. His name is Ernest Lloyd Jr., 25 years old. We mentioned the second man The first man was arrested a few weeks ago and police have said there is an arrest warrant out for a third suspect. And they say more arrest warrants are forthcoming. So this story is far from over. But remember when this first happened on August 3rd, we were concerned and her mom was concerned that this was going to be ruled a suicide.
00:10:41
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there's reason to think that. It seems to. be a whole string of black folks who just decide to hang themselves on trees in the South here lately.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: It's bizarre.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: It's bizarre.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: And to think that the one that really, and this young man's family is still fighting for answers, still fighting for attention, for people to pay attention to 21-year-old Trey Reed. He was a black student at Delta State University. And yeah, he was found hanging from a tree. Why would a 21-year-old black student in college on his way choose that method if he were to die by suicide and his death has been ruled a suicide i.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: Guess strange things can happen babe but that is just one i am i will never understand hey but i don't know i maybe it's not on the kid's mind at that age but just wrote the Babe, I am trying to find a way. Convenience? And who wants to kill themselves in a public manner at all? Right? It's difficult.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: And look, his family has been holding press conferences. Colin Kaepernick, actually, who has been really active in some of these cases. We saw him provide the money for the second autopsy, the independent autopsy of Nolan Wells. He also funded... this young man's second autopsy in addition. But look at this point, how do you prove, how do you prove how someone died by suicide or if someone contributed to where this young man ended up, but that has got to be incredibly difficult for this family to, to, to think that their son would do something like this. And if you know your son, you're thinking there's no way that this is how he would have chosen. And so, yes, when we first heard word about Tasia Fortune, that was what her mom was saying. She would never, ever, ever leave her children. She would never do this to herself. And so at least for her, she has expressed at each of these hearings. an immense amount of relief and gratitude that there at least is some justice because for Trey Reed, their family certainly doesn't feel that way. There was also Corey's zoo, uh, Zucatus. He was actually a white man, but this was also last year in Vicksburg, Mississippi found hanging from a tree and his death was ruled a suicide as well. I don't know what it is about Mississippi and tree hangings, but clearly the history is well known. It just seems so odd that someone would choose to replicate that in order to take their own life.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: No, I guess it's possible, but I will never understand. I will never understand. But I am really, really curious in this Tasia Fortune case just what happened to her and why would up to four or five men be involved? And there's one woman's death in an area that she is not familiar with and didn't know him to frequent. And she didn't live in that area. There's what? It just doesn't make any sense.
00:13:57
Speaker 2: The only connection to that street was that one of her children's fathers lived on that street. And by the way, the day after she was found, they arrested him on non-related charges, held him for a while, I believe, with some drug charges. But he has never been named a suspect. He has been released. And meantime, now these two unknown entities are behind bars. Both of them, we should point out, were denied bond, by the way, after they made their initial court appearance. And that's exactly what should happen. And we don't know if they're cooperating with police. We don't know what they've told police. But we do know that the latest man, Lloyd, who was just arrested, this is not his first run-in. He's just 25 years old, but he has a previous aggravated assault charge with Jackson Police Department. They say he also has other charges stemming from other incidents in another county. So this is somebody who has been in trouble with the law, who law enforcement was familiar with. And that may obviously be part of the reason why they were able to find him so quickly. They knew where to find him. So we will continue to follow the developments of the story because it does appear there will be more coming soon. So we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.