They’re Dying and America Has Decided Not to Notice

HEALTH & WELLNESS  ·  WOMEN’S ISSUES

While cable news runs wall-to-wall coverage of missing nuclear scientists, Black women across America are being murdered at a rate no one wants to call a crisis. Ashlee Jenae is just the latest name we almost forgot.

·   8 min read

KEY POINTS

• Black women are murdered at nearly 4x the rate of white women — a disparity unchanged since 1999
•  Ashlee Jenae, 31, died under suspicious circumstances in Zanzibar, Tanzania on April 8, 2026 — her fiancé is being questioned by police
• This same week, the White House, FBI, and major networks gave wall-to-wall coverage to 10 missing nuclear scientists
• No national database exists that properly tracks the murders of Black women and girls in America
• More than 90% of Black women who are murdered knew their killer — intimate partner violence drives the numbers
• The American Journal of Public Health declared this crisis a public health emergency in May 2025

Related: Black Maternal Health Crisis

Her name was Ashlee Jenae. Born Ashly Robinson, she was 31 years old — a Miami-based lifestyle influencer who had just celebrated her birthday in Zanzibar, Tanzania. She had just gotten engaged. Then her life ended under circumstances her family flatly refuses to accept as suicide.

Her fiancé claims she hanged herself. Hotel staff had separated the couple hours earlier after a series of arguments. Subsequently, she was found unresponsive in her room. Tanzanian police are currently questioning the fiancé. Her family has launched a GoFundMe for legal support. Moreover, her parents are considering flying to Africa themselves because authorities will not release the surveillance footage they have requested.

You may have seen this story. However, I want you to notice something important. You are far more likely to have spent this week reading about ten missing nuclear scientists than to have followed Ashlee Jenae’s case with the same urgency. Those scientists received White House meetings, FBI investigations, Trump press conferences, and wall-to-wall coverage on every major network.

There is a reason for that disparity. Additionally, we need to say it plainly.

“For any other health disparity of this magnitude, we would draw due attention and invest appropriate resources. But since it is Black women’s lives at stake, the issue fades to the background.”

— Dr. Tameka Gillum, American Journal of Public Health, 2025

What the Data Shows About Black Women Being Murdered in America

The Numbers Are Not Hidden — They Are Ignored

The research is published, peer-reviewed, and devastating. A 2024 study in The Lancet found that Black women are nearly three times more likely to be murdered than white women. Furthermore, the American Journal of Public Health declared the murder of Black women a public health crisis in May 2025.

BY THE NUMBERS

Twenty-Five Years of the Same Numbers

These numbers have not changed since 1999. Let that settle for a moment. For more than twenty-five years, researchers have documented this disparity. Nevertheless, Black women continue to die at rates that would trigger emergency legislation and round-the-clock coverage if they belonged to any other demographic in America.

In response to all of this data, mainstream media, the federal government, and the institutions that are supposed to protect these women have offered mostly silence. Additionally, there is not even a national database that properly tracks the murders of Black women and girls. Consequently, we do not know the full scope of what is happening because no one has built the infrastructure to find out.

Who Was Ashlee Jenae and Why Does Her Death Matter

A Birthday Trip That Ended in Death

On April 4, 2026, Ashly Robinson — known online as Ashlee Jenae — arrived at the Zuri Hotel in Zanzibar with her fiancé, Joseph Isaac McCann. The trip was a celebration of her 31st birthday and their recent engagement. However, within days, hotel staff had separated the couple due to repeated arguments. Then, hours after the separation, a hotel worker found Robinson unresponsive in her room.

THE CASE — ASHLEE JENAE  ·  ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA  ·  APRIL 8, 2026

Ashly Robinson, 31, traveled to the Zuri Hotel in Zanzibar with fiancé Joseph Isaac McCann, 45, for her birthday and engagement celebration. Hotel staff separated the couple on April 8 after repeated arguments. Robinson was subsequently found unresponsive in her room, a belt around her neck. McCann told authorities she hanged herself. Her family disputes this completely. Surveillance footage has not been released. Police continue to question McCann. No formal charges have been filed as of publication.

The Questions Her Family Is Asking

McCann told Tanzanian authorities that Robinson took her own life. Her family, however, rejects this account entirely. Additionally, observers noted that Robinson featured McCann prominently across her social media, while he reportedly made no public acknowledgment of her on his own accounts. After news of her death broke, he reportedly deleted posts on Instagram.

Moreover, the timing strikes many followers as deeply inconsistent with suicide. Her last Instagram post was April 5 — her birthday and the day of the engagement. Just eight days later, she was dead. Online communities, particularly Black women’s spaces, have been asking the hard questions that mainstream outlets have largely avoided.

I am not here to render a verdict on what happened in Tanzania. Nevertheless, a 31-year-old Black woman is dead under disputed circumstances, and the media gave her case a fraction of the attention it gave to nuclear scientists this same week.

How Media Coverage of Murdered Black Women Compares to Other Stories

The Nuclear Scientists Got White House Meetings. Black Women Got Nothing.

This week, the White House held a formal meeting about missing nuclear scientists. President Trump called the situation ‘pretty serious stuff.’ The FBI launched an investigation. Moreover, every major network ran continuous coverage. As of this writing, ten scientists connected to classified research have disappeared or died since mid-2023. That story deserves coverage. However, compare that response to what has happened every single week for the past twenty-five years with murdered Black women.

SIDE BY SIDE: HOW AMERICA RESPONDS

Missing White Woman Syndrome Is Real and Documented

Academics have named this pattern. ‘Missing white woman syndrome’ refers to the documented media tendency to cover the disappearances and deaths of white women at dramatically higher rates than those of Black and Indigenous women, regardless of circumstances. Consequently, Black families must fight for coverage that white families receive automatically.

Amarie Alowonle’s family knows this firsthand. Amarie was 19 years old when she was shot at Sanborn Park in Robbinsdale, Minnesota in May 2025. She died a week later. Additionally, no one has been arrested. Her family has written letters, organized vigils, pushed for reward money, and contacted representatives — largely on their own.

AMARIE ALOWONLE  ·  ROBBINSDALE, MINNESOTA  ·  MAY 2025

Amarie Alowonle was 19 years old when she was shot at Sanborn Park in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She died a week later from her injuries. Nearly a year has passed with no arrest. Her family has organized vigils, written letters to legislators, and pushed for reward money on their own. The case remains unsolved. Her mother Tatiana Kilgore spoke at the Minnesota State Capitol’s Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Day on the Hill on April 13, 2026.

‘The disparity in media coverage has been painfully personal,’ Amarie’s family told reporters at the Minnesota State Capitol. Her aunt Maia Yang described searching desperately online for resources after Amarie was shot. Furthermore, as other high-profile cases captured national attention, their efforts to keep Amarie’s name visible became even harder.

Why Researchers Call This a Public Health Crisis

This Is Not Just a Crime Problem

The American Journal of Public Health used specific language in May 2025 for an important reason. The researchers called this a public health crisis — not a crime wave, not a social issue. They chose that language because the scale of harm, the systemic causes, and the inadequacy of existing responses all require a coordinated emergency response.

Research identifies several interlocking factors. First, harmful stereotypes about Black women shape how both intimate partners and law enforcement respond when Black women are in danger. Studies show police are less likely to believe Black women who report abuse. Furthermore, Black communities face more intense policing as suspects while simultaneously receiving less responsive protection as victims.

Pregnancy Makes Black Women Even More Vulnerable

The data on pregnancy is particularly alarming. Between 2000 and 2019, homicide became a leading cause of death for Black women both during and after pregnancy. Additionally, forty-two percent of Black women who died from non-childbirth causes during pregnancy were killed by violence. These are the mothers of children who are growing up without them.

Moreover, Black women are killed six years younger than the national average for female homicide victims. They are murdered at younger ages than Native American and Alaska Native women, who also face disproportionate violence. These are not distant statistics. They are the texture of what is happening in communities across America.

“Black women are not only nearly three times more likely to be murdered than white women — they are killed six years younger than the national average.”

— The Lancet, 2024

What Needs to Change to Protect Black Women in America

Awareness Alone Is Not Enough

Lesser articles would tell you to ‘raise awareness’ and ‘start conversations.’ However, awareness without action is just grief management. We have been aware of this crisis for twenty-five years. Therefore, the problem is not awareness. The problem is will.

This crisis needs what every crisis of this scale eventually gets — when it affects people the government has decided matter. Specifically, it needs a national database. It also needs federal legislation that responds to the murder of Black women with the same urgency that missing scientists receive. Furthermore, media organizations must make real editorial commitments to cover these cases consistently.

Communities Must Refuse to Accept This as Normal

Furthermore, our communities must refuse the premise that these deaths are normal. They are not normal. They are the predictable result of a system that has decided, repeatedly, that Black women are worth less. Every time we accept that decision without challenge, we confirm it.

Say Ashlee Jenae’s name. Say Amarie Alowonle’s name. Please say the names of the women in the Our Black Girls database — hundreds of them, going back years. And say the names of the women whose cases were never opened because no one built the database to capture them.

What You Can Do This Week

• Follow and share the Ashlee Jenae story — keep her name in circulation and demand updates from authorities
• Contact your Congressional representative and ask them to sponsor legislation creating a national database for missing and murdered Black women and girls
• Support organizations doing this work: Our Black Girls (ourblackgirls.com) and your local domestic violence organizations serving Black communities
• When media covers missing white women without comparable coverage of Black women, say so publicly, specifically, and with receipts
• If you are in a dangerous relationship, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233

The Choice America Keeps Making — And How We Change It

Black women are being murdered. Furthermore, the numbers have not changed in twenty-five years. Nevertheless, the names keep coming and America keeps looking away.

I want to be clear about what I am arguing. Specifically, I am not saying that missing nuclear scientists do not matter. They do. However, when America decides that some lives trigger White House meetings and other lives trigger nothing — when that pattern is as consistent and as documented as this one — that is not a media failure. That is a values statement.

The good news is that values can change. Consequently, communities can demand better. Moreover, media outlets can choose to cover these stories. Politicians can build the databases and pass the legislation. None of this requires waiting for permission.

We do not have to accept the world that says Ashlee Jenae’s death is less urgent than a nuclear scientist’s disappearance. We can build a different one.

Say her name. Say all their names. Then do something about it.

About the Author

Denise Tureaud — Health & Wellness Columnist, Black Source Media

Denise Tureaud is a health, wellness, and personal growth columnist whose work focuses on the physical, emotional, and spiritual lives of Black women and families. She writes every Wednesday for Black Source Media. Her voice is direct, her research is thorough, and her commitment to telling the truth about what is happening to Black people in America is absolute.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Gillum, T.L. et al. “The Murder of Black Women in the United States: A Public Health Crisis.” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 115, Issue 5, May 2025.

Waller, B.Y. et al. “Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25–44 years in the USA, 1999–2020.” The Lancet, Vol. 403, February 2024.

CNN / AP: “Influencer found dead during birthday trip to Africa with her fiancé.” April 14, 2026.

The African Mirror: “American influencer found dead in Tanzanian hotel.” April 2026.

Spokesman-Recorder: “Missing and Murdered Black Women Minnesota 2026 Day on the Hill.” April 13, 2026.

Newsweek: “White House Investigating Wave of Missing or Dead Scientists.” April 2026.

Our Black Girls (ourblackgirls.com): Independent documentation of missing and murdered Black women and girls.