Marlo Wallace is accused of killing Aaliyah Fortner, a nonverbal woman with autism who lived in Wallace’s Dallas home.

GASTONIA, N.C. — A Gaston County caregiver is facing a first-degree murder charge after police say a highway crash led officers to the body of 23-year-old Aaliyah Fortner inside a Dallas home.

The charge against Marlo Wallace, 59, came months after Fortner was found dead in October 2025. Investigators say Fortner, who had autism and was nonverbal, lived in Wallace’s home and depended on others for care. The case now centers on what happened inside the Green Brook Trail residence before Wallace crashed her vehicle and told officers there was a dead person at her home.

The investigation began Oct. 26, 2025, when Gastonia police responded to a crash involving Wallace’s vehicle and a semi-truck on Interstate 85 northbound near exit 21. Wallace was taken for medical treatment after the wreck. Police say she then told officers they would find a deceased person at her home in the 1800 block of Green Brook Trail in Dallas. Officers went to the address and found Fortner’s body. At that point, police were not only investigating the crash. They were also trying to determine how a young woman who had been placed in Wallace’s care had died inside the home.

Court records and police accounts describe a case that grew more serious as investigators gathered evidence. Wallace was first charged with concealment of death from unnatural causes, patient abuse and neglect, and felony assault of an individual with disabilities. Authorities later said Fortner had been assaulted on multiple occasions. An arrest affidavit accused Wallace of hitting Fortner with objects, pushing her to the ground, using a Taser on her, kicking her and stomping on her head. Police also accused another woman connected to Fortner’s care, Vera Williams, of patient abuse and neglect and felony assault of an individual with disabilities.

The case shifted to a homicide prosecution after medical findings were reviewed. Prosecutors said the murder charge took time because they were waiting for autopsy results. The district attorney’s office later charged Wallace with first-degree murder, alleging that Fortner was killed with malice aforethought. Some medical details have been reported, including that Fortner weighed 84 pounds when she died and had lost about 60 pounds over six months. Records also described blunt force injuries across her body. The full autopsy findings were not released in the earliest public reports, and officials have not publicly answered every question about the timing of Fortner’s final injuries.

Fortner’s family has said the hardest part is that she could not tell anyone what was happening. Her brother, Caleb Simpson, said the thought of her final days has been painful to carry. “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. He said in another interview, “It hurts. My sister went through all of that alone.” Relatives have also said Fortner’s condition made her fully dependent on the adults responsible for feeding her, watching her and protecting her inside the home.

The Green Brook Trail home has become a focus because Wallace reportedly operated a home for people with special needs there. Local reports said authorities had revoked Wallace’s guardianship of another nonverbal adult who lived at the home about two years before Fortner was placed there. That history has raised questions about how Fortner came to live with Wallace and what agencies knew before her death. Simpson said he believes his sister should not have been placed there. “The state failed Aaliyah,” he said. He also said people trusted the system to protect her, then saw that trust broken in the worst possible way.

Investigators have also pointed to evidence they say shows the abuse was not limited to one moment. Police documents cited multiple assaults and named several forms of alleged violence, including objects, a Taser and repeated blows. A prosecutor told a judge that some alleged abuse was captured on video and that Wallace tried to delete it. Officials have not publicly released the video. The defense has not tried the case in court, and Wallace is presumed innocent unless convicted. It was not immediately clear from public reports whether she had entered a plea to the murder charge.

Wallace remained in the Gaston County Jail after the murder charge was filed. Williams also faced charges tied to abuse and neglect allegations. Earlier bond amounts for the two women totaled $2.5 million before the murder charge changed the posture of Wallace’s case. The next steps are expected to include additional court hearings, review of medical records, possible evidence motions and decisions by prosecutors about how to present the alleged video and autopsy findings. The case remains active, with the fatal crash, the home search and the autopsy now forming the main timeline in the prosecution.

As of July 8, Wallace was still accused of first-degree murder in Fortner’s death, and officials had not publicly resolved the larger questions about placement and oversight. The case now moves through Gaston County court as Fortner’s relatives wait for the next formal step.

Author note: Last updated July 8, 2026.