(NEW YORK) — A third suspect was arrested on murder charges in the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black mother of four whose body was found hanging from a tree behind an apparently vacant Jackson, Mississippi, home on Aug. 3.
Police arrested Eric Clark, a 45-year-old Black man, on murder charges in Fortune’s death on Friday, the Jackson Police Department announced. Clark is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, police said. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney.
Clark’s arrest came after two other Black men were arrested earlier this month and charged with murder in this case.
During a hearing on Sept. 23, bond was denied for Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, one of the suspects, according to ABC affiliate station WAPT in Jackson. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney in his case.
Jarques Ratliff, 51, was arrested on Sept. 11 and charged with murder. According to an affidavit, Ratliff is accused of using a black cable cord to hang Fortune from a tree, WAPT reported. Ratliff pleaded not guilty during a hearing on Sept. 14, where he was also denied bond.
According to The Associated Press, police disclosed during a pre-trial hearing for Ratliff on Friday that Fortune was killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” scene.
Asked by ABC News to confirm this detail, a spokesperson for the Jackson Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Ratliff’s attorney, Toney Baldwin, confirmed his client’s not guilty plea to ABC News, but did not comment on the charges.
Following Ratliff’s arrest, Fortune’s family told ABC News in a statement that they are “grateful” for the arrest, and called for “patience” from the public as the investigation takes its course.
“We would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support and are grateful for the silence to be broken but we also want to say that we wish for people to have patience and wait for the rest of the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions,” Fortune’s family said in a statement Monday following Ratliffe’s arrest. “We are hoping soon we will have more answers.”
Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, told ABC News in an interview on Aug. 8 that her daughter’s death has “devastated” the family.
“This has just devastated us,” she said. “Tasia was strong-minded, she was full of laughs and love, she had faith in God … she had so little and gave so much.”
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