Police make 2nd arrest in death of woman found hanging from tree

Police in Mississippi 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 said late Tuesday that they 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. 3.Like Fortune and the first man arrested, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, Lloyd is Black. He appeared at a brief hearing Wednesday in Jackson.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 that 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. After Ratliff's arrest, Jackson's police chief, RaShall Brackney, said Ratliff had an "association" with Fortune, but she didn't elaborate.Police said in a statement that they issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect, but gave