Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 16

Major Outlets Omitted Jarques Ratliff's Race in Tasia Fortune Murder Coverage After 51-Year-Old's Arrest

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 16

Major Outlets Omitted Jarques Ratliff's Race in Tasia Fortune Murder Coverage After 51-Year-Old's Arrest

Q: What hidden link connects a mother of four to the man accused of staging her chilling death in a Mississippi backyard?

The key link publicly identified so far is that police say Jarques Ratliff had an “association” with Tasia Fortune, meaning they knew each other, but investigators have not disclosed the exact nature of that relationship. Jackson police have said Ratliff, 51, is charged with murder after the Mississippi State Medical Examiner ruled Fortune’s death a homicide. Court and local reporting further allege Fortune was found hanging from a tree by a black cable cord behind a vacant home on Road of Remembrance. Ratliff has pleaded not guilty, and bond was denied. What remains hidden is the precise connection between them. Police Chief RaShall Brackney said the association became clearer as investigators interviewed roughly 15 people and gathered forensic evidence, but authorities have withheld details because the case is still active and more arrests may follow. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said she did not know Ratliff and was asking her daughter’s friends whether they knew him. That suggests any relationship may have been outside the family’s knowledge. Investigators also have not publicly disclosed a motive, how Fortune was killed before her body was staged, or whether race played any role. So, based on the evidence released so far, the hidden link is not a proven family or romantic tie but an undisclosed prior association between Fortune and Ratliff that police say is central to the homicide case.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 16

Friday's arrest of 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff in the killing of Tasia Fortune shifted the case, but several major outlets still identified Fortune as Black while omitting that Ratliff is also Black.
CNN, NBC, ABC, AP and USA Today either left out Ratliff's race in initial stories, buried his mugshot deep in coverage, or in ABC's first report did not name him at all; some later added his race in Monday follow-ups.
The omissions undercut early claims that Fortune's death was a hate crime or "modern-day lynching" after the 29-year-old mother of four was found hanging from a tree outside an abandoned Jackson home last month.
Ratliff pleaded not guilty on Monday, and USA Today said it stood by its initial report because authorities had not disclosed his race and its policy limits mugshot use.