Florida Black Lives Matter Activist Oluwatoyin Salau Found Dead After Tweeting About Sexual Harassment
KEY POINTS
- 19-year-old Florida activist tweeted about being molested by a black man
- Tallahassee Police was working to locate her
- Authorities are yet to confirm her death
Fresh tweets Monday appeared to suggest Oluwatoyin Salau, a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, was found dead with the hashtag #JusticeforToyin trending on the social media platform. The announcement came over a week after she disappeared, prompting a police search.
The Florida teenager, who rose to prominence for leading protests throughout the area, had gone missing June 6, hours after tweeting about the sexual harassment she faced following a demonstration in Tallahassee. Tallahassee Police Department told USA Today back then that they were working to locate her.
In what was her last tweet, she complained of being molested at the hands of a black man who offered to give her a ride as she was out looking for “someplace to sleep.”
According to the Tweet, the man even asked to accompany her to the Church she “refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions.”
"He came disguised as a man of God and ended up picking me up from nearby Saxon Street," she said in the tweet. “I trusted the holy spirit to keep me safe."
Salau went on to describe her attack in the following thread. "All of my belongings my phone my clothes shoes are all assumably at the church where I've been trying to track since I sought spiritual guidance/ refuge. I will not be silent," she wrote.
She said she alerted police about the misconduct but didn’t specify the church where she was staying. Several people replied to her post offering help but she never responded or tweeted since.
Per the USA Today report, she was being searched by demonstrators and officials at the Tallahassee Community Action Agency after her disappearance. The demonstrators searched for hours for her with flashlights, and even requested a team of medics in case she was hurt.
The tweets depicting her death didn’t mention when and where her body was discovered. Authorities are yet to confirm her death.
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