Prosecutors say medical findings changed the case months after Aaliyah Fortner was found dead in a Dallas home.
GASTONIA, N.C. — Medical findings turned an abuse and neglect case into a first-degree murder prosecution against Marlo Wallace, the Gaston County caregiver accused in the death of 23-year-old Aaliyah Fortner.
Wallace, 59, was first arrested after Fortner’s body was found in October 2025 at a Dallas home where Fortner had been living under Wallace’s care. The case changed in June when prosecutors filed the murder charge after reviewing autopsy results. Fortner had autism, was nonverbal and could not describe pain, hunger or fear to officers, relatives or doctors, making records and witness accounts central to the case.
In court, prosecutors said they waited before filing a homicide charge because the autopsy was needed to determine whether Fortner’s death could support a murder count. The upgraded charge alleges that Wallace killed Fortner with malice aforethought. Public reports said the autopsy found Fortner’s death was a homicide and described severe signs of injury and decline before she died. Records cited in local reports said Fortner weighed 84 pounds at the time of death after losing about 60 pounds over six months. The same reports said she had blunt force injuries across her body.
The medical findings added weight to earlier claims made by police. Investigators had already accused Wallace of abusing Fortner on multiple occasions before the murder charge was filed. A probable cause affidavit said Wallace hit Fortner with objects, pushed her to the ground, used a Taser on her, kicked her and stomped on her head. Another arrest warrant said Wallace struck Fortner about the head and body on Oct. 24, 2025, using her hands and possibly an unknown weapon. Officials have not publicly released the full autopsy report in all early accounts, and some details about the precise cause and manner findings have remained limited in public reporting.
The case began outside the home, not inside it. On Oct. 26, 2025, Gastonia police responded to a crash involving Wallace’s vehicle and a semi-truck on Interstate 85 northbound near exit 21. After Wallace was taken to a hospital, police say she told investigators they would find a dead person at her home on Green Brook Trail in Dallas. Officers went to the residence and found Fortner. The crash, Wallace’s statement and the discovery at the house linked a traffic investigation to a death investigation in one day.
The charges also drew attention to who had daily control over Fortner’s care. Wallace reportedly operated a home for people with special needs out of the Green Brook Trail residence. Police said Fortner had been living under Wallace’s care when she died. Vera Williams, another woman involved in Fortner’s care, was also charged with patient abuse and neglect and felony assault of an individual with disabilities. Separate court documents alleged Williams assaulted Fortner by hitting her with objects, pushing her down and breaking a broom while hitting her. Williams has not been charged with murder in the public reports reviewed.
Fortner’s relatives have described her as unable to speak for herself and dependent on adults around her. Caleb Simpson, Fortner’s brother, said the thought of his sister being alone during the alleged abuse has stayed with him. “For her to be alone through all of that and then for it to end the way it did, I hate to even think what was going on in her mind,” Simpson said. His comments have become part of the public face of the case, which is about both the alleged violence and the silence forced by Fortner’s disability.
Questions about oversight predate the murder charge. Local investigative reports said a court had revoked Wallace’s guardianship of another nonverbal adult living in the same home about two years before Fortner was placed there. Reports said that earlier action came after sworn witness statements and concerns about safety. Fortner’s family has questioned why she was placed with Wallace after that history. Simpson said, “Watch who you trust. Everybody should be angry about something like this.” He said the family trusted the state and now believes that trust failed Fortner.
The legal process now has several tracks. Prosecutors must prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense lawyers may challenge medical conclusions, statements, video evidence or how investigators collected records from the home. Prosecutors have said some alleged abuse was captured on video and that Wallace tried to delete it. Police have not released the video publicly. Wallace remains presumed innocent unless convicted, and it was not immediately clear from available public reports whether she had entered a plea to the first-degree murder charge.
The case stands as a Gaston County murder prosecution built on a crash report, a home search, court records and medical findings. The next public milestone is expected to come in court, where prosecutors will have to connect the autopsy findings to the alleged abuse inside the Green Brook Trail home.
Author note: Last updated July 8, 2026.