This is a side project related to my main Autism Memorial blog. Autism Memorial is a list of memorials for autistic victims of homicide, abuse, harassment, and other crimes; however, I often find stories about non-autistic disabled crime victims, and while I don’t have the time or emotional resources to cover them fully, I wanted to provide a reference for people who are researching disabled murder victims.
I am including just the relevant details in each entry. Unlike the autism memorial, this includes the perpetrator’s name so that information can be found more easily.
This list isn’t going to be a good statistical representation of disabled homicide victims–it can’t be. The more publicity a case received, the more likely it is that I’ll have heard about it. Especially notable are cases where the perpetrator received the death penalty; these cases can be found in archives of murderers and death-row inmates with much greater reliability than others. Cases where the perpetrator “got away with it”–when there was no trial because the death was assumed to be natural, or when the perpetrator was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge and given a trivial sentence–often don’t even make it to the news.
A note on perpetrators: Being listed as a perpetrator in one of these entries doesn’t necessarily mean someone has been declared legally guilty. Perpetrator’s names are names associated with these homicides, and they are there to help you search for information. The people involved may have been convicted, or charged and acquitted, or arrested but not charged, or suspected but never arrested, or convicted of a lesser charge; or their trial may still be in progress. In any given case, the perpetrator’s name is a best guess from the references found. I describe a case as “unsolved” only in those cases where there is no best guess because there were never any good suspects.
* Entries marked with asterisks were perpetrated by a parent or caregiver (other than professional caregivers).
+ Entries marked with plus signs are people with autism.
! Entries marked with exclamation points are police, jail, or prison-related deaths.
# Entries marked with hash marks took place in institutions such as nursing homes, group homes, and long-term care facilities.
Memorial Annex 