Oluwatoyin ‘Toyin’ Salau found dead: Missing Black Lives Matter protester who vanished in Tallahassee, Florida has been found dead according to social media. Had posted about sexual assault hours earlier on day of disappearance.
A missing Black Lives Matter protester who vanished in Tallahassee, Florida has been found dead according to police.
Oluwatoyin ‘Toyin’ Salau, 19 had been last seen on June 6 before unconfirmed social media reports of her death emerged more than a week later. A second woman, Victoria Sims, 75, who had also been reported missing, was found dead nearby. Arrested in the slayings was Aaron Glee Jr., 49. The nature of the man’s relationship with each woman was unknown the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
‘I will not be silenced,’
The woman’s death follows Salau going missing just hours after leaving a series of seemingly alarming texts on the day of her disappearance.
‘Silence is the best weapon for some but not for me I will not be silenced,’ Salau posted on her Twitter page, which she filled with comments about race and social justice.
Salau’s disappearance has sparked wide outcry social media, with commentators asking why the media hadn’t covered her case more widely, while others criticized police, who they accused of not doing more to locate her given references Salau had made on social media about what she said was a sexual assault prior to her vanishing.
I’m sorry to inform everyone about this but Toyin is no longer with us https://t.co/HK85TgGFhV
— Ashley (@laurecapri) June 15, 2020
‘Toyin is no longer with us.’
Come June 15, social media was awash with claims that Salau’s body had been found (the term RIP Toyin even trended on Twitter), even before police had publicly disclosed this to be the case.
On June 14, a woman who goes by Ashley on Twitter and who indicated she was helping Salau’s mother, posted, ‘I’m sorry to inform everyone about this but Toyin is no longer with us.’
On June 11, the same woman wrote on Twitter, ‘She’s been missing since last Friday since she left me and my friends. Last time she was last sighted was at the BL Perry Library on Saturday then after that we haven’t seen her. If you know any info please contact me because I’m helping her mom. She’s somewhere on the south side.’
A missing person’s poster released by police stated Oluwatoyin Salau as 19 years old, 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds and having black hair and brown eyes.
activist Oluwatoyin Salau was missing since June 6, after disturbing tweets detailing a sexual assault that had taken place that day. it has been reported that her body has been found. WHAT HAPPENED TO TOYIN? SAY HER NAME #JusticeforToyin pic.twitter.com/76PM2PJEjk
— dylan zo’brien (@kurtzobain) June 15, 2020
Oluwatoyin Salau’s first protest pic.twitter.com/FdILS7yDX6
— Ashley (@laurecapri) June 15, 2020
Alleged sexual assault on the day of disappearance
Salau, who was discovered a few miles from where she was last seen at a library, detailed an alleged sexual assault on the day she disappeared, WTXL reported.
On the afternoon of her disappearance, Salau had posted the following, ‘Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions.’
Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions.
— Oluwatoyin (@virgingrltoyin) June 6, 2020
Salau according to her Twitter account, described another alleged sexual assault, at the hands of another man who she said, back in March, ‘tried to force me to give him oral sex and then continued to harrass (sic) me thru text and knocking at my door for days.” She wrote that she is 19 and that man was 32.’
Were two women’s deaths connected to their activism?
Leading up to her June 6 disappearance, Salau had spoken at protests and carried signs pleading for justice in the wake of black lives lost. Her social media account was filled with comments about race, police and other issues affecting society. ‘What do white people b tryna escape,’ read one recent post.
“The media loves to censor black pain for a groundbreaking story there is no middle ground… keep reporting and fact checking stay on y’all toes,’ read another.
Sims, who was reported missing Thursday, was a retired state worker who spent her career in local Democratic politics, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. She also worked as a volunteer for AARP Florida, WTXL reported.
A ‘relief fund’ on GoFundMe for Salau by Monday afternoon raised had raised $9535 as mystery surrounding both women’s disappearance.
