Alora Fountain
Alora Fountain was 16 when she died in March 2017 at Ware Youth Center, a juvenile detention facility in Coushatta, Louisiana. Her friend Keelye Denise remembered her crying all day and wondering whether her mother would miss her. The New York Times reported that she died by hanging, and her friend said a guard had taunted her about her grandmother not wanting her. A Louisiana state report described her death as a suicide and said an investigation found no failures on the part of the facility. The friend said Alora had recently told a counselor she had begun making herself throw up.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide. The Louisiana inspector general report says she died by suicide, and a Department of Child & Family Services investigation found no failures by the facility; a friend said a guard taunted her about her grandmother not wanting her.
Reported by: Louisiana inspector general report (outside investigators); a friend of Alora Fountain (witnesses); news reporting on Ware Youth Center (reporters).