to horrific cruelty. Disabled women and girls are particularly vulnerable.

Due to cultural prejudices and the weakness of the justice system, past crimes against disabled citizens have been largely ignored. But the slayings of Jesula Gelin, Vanessa Previl and Monique Vincent have galvanized Haitians with disabilities and prompted rare public protests by their advocacy groups.

Outrage is particularly acute in the village of Leveque, where the women lived in a community of 168 homes established by U.S. religious organizations for deaf people displaced by the 2010 earthquake. Gelin's husband, Micheler Castor, now struggles there to raise their six kids alone.

"I can't understand it," Castor, also deaf, said in sign language of his 29-year-old wife's killing. "She served the Lord and was a good wife and mother."

Advocates for the disabled inHaiti say they hope what happened can chip away at the obstacles to justice and social inclusion faced by these most vulnerable citizens of the hemisphere's poorest nation.

Around the globe, treatment of the disabled varies widely from country to country, but discrimination and barriers to inclusion are commonplace. Those problems are most severe in the developing world, where the World Health Organization says 80 percent of disabled people live.

"This case is very important. The disabled have made advances in Haiti, but there's still far, far too much stigma and impunity," Michel Pean, a blind activist who was Haiti's first secretary of state for the integration of disabled people.

With pressure from that government agency, police have arrested three members of a family suspected of murdering the deaf women. Investigators