Jan Conboy (@javelina)

A 23-year-old nonverbal autistic woman named Aaliyah Fortner was starved and beaten to death inside a North Carolina group home. She weighed just 84 pounds at the time of her death after losing more than 40% of her body weight over six months. Court documents allege her caregiver repeatedly tased her, beat her with objects, broke a broom over her body, and stomped on her head. Aaliyah could not speak and had no way to cry out for help. The state had previously stripped the same caregiver of guardianship over another nonverbal adult, yet still allowed her to run the home and placed Aaliyah there. This is a horrific failure by the system that was supposed to protect the most vulnerable. Say her name: Aaliyah Fortner.