After Cameron Wright confessed to assaulting Aliah Hernandez in 2014 in a New Braunfels, Texas hotel room, both the officer assigned to Aliah’s case and Aliah’s friends and family thought it was an open-and-shut case. But two grand juries declined to indict Wright. In part two of Queer Texas, Heather Stewart shares the rest of Aliah’s story. Aliah’s best friend shares her frustrations at the lack of indictment, and a legal professional weighs in on why the grand juries might have declined to indict.

Resources:

• FBI anonymous tip form: https://tips.fbi.gov/
• Matthew Shepard Foundation hate crime prevention resources: https://www.matthewshepard.org/resources/hate-crime-prevention-resources/
• Equality Texas resources: https://www.equalitytexas.org/community-resources/
• Comal County, helpful links for victims of crime: https://www.co.comal.tx.us/so/Victim-Services/Helpful%20Links%20Victim%20Services.pdf
• Lambda Legal help desk: https://lambdalegal.org/helpdesk/
• San Antonio Gender Association: https://sagender.org/

In December 2014, Aliah Hernandez, a trans woman, told police she was assaulted after revealing her gender identity to a man whom she met up with at a hotel in New Braunfels, Texas. In the first episode of Queer Texas, a four-part “Forsaken” series that outlines the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community in the mostly conservative city of New Braunfels, Heather Stewart shares Aliah’s story.

Everyone’s familiar with AMBER Alert – the notifications sent out when a child is missing or kidnapped and in danger. But what many don’t know is that the system was created because of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas in January 1996. Her body was found four days later. The tragedy rocked the North Texas community and led one citizen to ask what she could do to help, and the AMBER Alert system was born. As of Dec. 31, 2023, the AMBER Alert system has saved 1,200 children.