2007 Transgender Murder Victims
Here is the updated list as of :
17 Victims and their first person descriptions:
Valentina Falco
Location: Novara, Italy
Age: 34
Date: November 25-26, 2006
My name was Valentina Falco. I was 34, and died in Italy. My
neighbors, suspicious that the lights had been constantly on in my
terraced house in Dormelletto, alerted police officers. When the
police arrived to investigate, they found me in my bedroom,
butchered.
~~~~~
Nakia Ladelle Baker
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Age: 31 yrs. old
Cause of Death: trauma to the head
My name was Nakia Ladelle Baker. I was 31, and lived on of
Richardson Road in Nashville, Tennessee. I was found next to my car
at 3312-B Nolensville Pike, behind Club Adventura & Billiards in the
early morning of January 7, 2007. Although my death had initially
been reported as by beating, an autopsy found a bullet.
I left the bar as it was closing down, and when they found my body
there were signs of a struggle around my car. Yet, there had been
no one in the area -- including security guards -- that reported
hearing a gunshot, and no one reported seeing the altercation or my
killing.
My murder remains unsolved.
~~~~~
Tamara (Hasan Sabeh)
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Age: 34 yrs. old
My name was Hasan Sabeh, but many knew me as Tamara. I was a 34
year old transgender woman who worked in Bagdad's fashion industry,
designing women’s clothes. I had lived in the al-Mansor district of
Baghdad, Iraq.
I was seized in the street by an Islamist death squad, and then
hanged in public on a holy Shia religious day, 11 January 2007.
After I was hung, my body was mutilated and cut to pieces.
~~~~~
Tamara's (Hasan Sabeh's) Brother-In-Law
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Age: Unknown
My sister-in-law's name was Hasan Sabeh, but many knew her as
Tamara. She was seized in the street by an Islamist death squad,
and then hanged in public on a holy Shia religious day, 11 January
2007. After she was hung, her body was mutilated and cut to pieces.
When I tried to defend her, I was also killed.
~~~~~
Keittirat Longnawa
Location: Rassada, Thailand
Age: Unknown
My name was Keittirat Longnawa, a 31-year-old transsexual living in
Rassada, Thailand, and was a known glue addict. I was a native of
Ao Luk District in Krabiand, Thailand. I was beaten and had my
throat slashed on January 31, 2007.
Seven males and two females belonging to a gang, ranging in age from
14 to 21, were identified as killing me. Apparently, an intoxicated
16-year-old boy in the group became incensed at me, while we all
were smoking glue. Taking a kitchen knife carried by one of the two
girls, the teenager stabbed me.
After he stabbed me, the other teens all joined him in a frenzy,
taking turns stabbing me, kicking me, and hitting me with sticks.
My bloody corpse was discovered the following afternoon by a
villager, who then informed police. I was clad only in jeans, and
was found with a brassiere, address book, sandals, a bloody tube of
lipstick and two nearby bloodied bags containing glue.
Six of the nine gang members have been arrested for killing me.
~~~~~
Tatiana "the Brazilian" (Aldomiro Gomes)
Location: Trani, Italy
Age: 57
I was Aldomiro Gomes, also known as Tatiana, and I originally was
from Brazil, but I'd been living in Trani, Italy. I was
57-years-old.
My body was discovered by a jogger on the morning of Monday 19
February 2007, in the middle of a street. I had fatal blow to the
temple -- which police suspect could have been done by a stone --
and my head had been slammed by a car door.
~~~~~
Moira Donaire González
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
Age: 30 yrs. Old
I was Moira Donaire González, and I was murdered, in Viña del Mar,
Chile. I died on March 5, 2007 after being stabbed five times by a
street vendor. I was just 30-years-old.
~~~~~
Michelle Carrasco "Chela"
Location: Santiago, Chile
Age: 54 Yrs. Old
I was Michelle Carrasco, and everyone knew me as Chela. I was
54-years-old, and was a prostitute. At approximately 8 a.m. on the
morning of March 16,2007, authorities discovered my lifeless body on
the outskirts of Santiago, Chile. My family members had to identify
my lifeless body.
My face had been beaten to the point where it was completely
disfigured. I'd been left in a makeshift pit, presumably by the
person who had brutally attacked me while I worked the road to
Melipilla, waiting for clients in Santiago's Lo Espejo district, the
previous night.
~~~~~
Ruby Rodriguez
Location: San Francisco, California
Age: 27 Yrs. Old
My name was Ruby Ordenana, but I was also known as Ruby Rodriguez.
I was a 27-year-old transgender woman living in the San Francisco
Bay Area. I originally was from Nicaragua, and I'd immigrated to the
United States like so many others, to make a better life for myself.
I was involved within the local community, attending area support
groups and attending language classes.
I also was a sex worker in the Tenderloin district, fighting my own
personal issue of drug addiction, and struggling with my immigration
status.
On March 16, 2007 -- a little before 6:00 a.m. -- I body was
discovered on the sidewalk of Indiana Street in San Francisco by my
friends. I was stripped of my clothes; I presumably was dumped there
by my killer. I'd been strangled to death.
Michael Savage said of me on his talk radio show that I was a
"psychopath" who "should have been in a back ward in a straitjacket
for years, howling on major medication."
~~~~~
Erica Keel
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age: 21 Yrs. Old
Motorist Roland Bottom struck me, and African-American transwoman
named Erica Keel, at about 2 a.m. March 21, 2007. It was at Broad
and Thompson streets in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I died
two days later at Hahnemann University Hospital from multiple
injuries. The city's Medical Examiner's Office classified my death
as a "hit-and-run accident" -- I was just 21.
Witnesses and friends of mine refute that my death was accidental. I
was doing in sex work at that early morning, and witnesses said that
I entered a car at Broad Street and Girard Avenue. The car then
headed North one block, where witnesses say the driver ejected me
from the car, and ran over me four times as I lay in the street.
The driver, Roland Button, fled the scene but was later apprehended
by police. He has yet to face criminal charges, including even "hit
and run" charges. When my transgender friends questioned police
officials about the classification of my death as an "accident,"
they were asked to disclose their "birth" names and were told they
were "trying to make something out of nothing."
~~~~~
Bret T. Turner
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Age: 48 Yrs. Old
My name was Bret T. Turner, and I was 48 years old. I was found
dead in my Madison, Wisconsin apartment, dressed in women's
clothing. I'd been stabbed 14 times.
A man named Nigel Head told police that he became upset with me
during sex the night of the murder. In a plea deal, Head received a
thirty year sentence for my murder.
~~~~~
Manuela Di Cesare
Location: Pescara, Italy
Age: 37
My name was Manuela Di Cesare, a 37-year-old transsexual living in
Pescara, Italy. I was brutally killed in the night between late
Saturday and early Sunday -- the 21st and 22nd of April. When I was
found, I was half-naked on my sofa, with my skull fractured from
six blows to the head. My head was covered by a pillow --
presumably to muffle my screams.
~~~~~
Unidentified Male Clad in Female Attire
Location: Kingston, Jamaica
Age: Unknown
The Matilda's Corner Police, in Kingston Jamaica, found a male body
clad in female attire - a jeans skirt, panty and a brief. That was
me. I was killed and my body dumped within the St. Andrew Central
Police division's boundaries on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 --
Investigators say I was killed elsewhere and my body dumped along
Munroe Road.
I had gunshot wounds in the chest and lower back. Police sources
theorized that my killing may have been a hate crime.
~~~~~
Victoria Arellano
Location: San Pedro, California
Age: 23
My name is Victoria Arellano, a transgender woman of 23. During my
detention at the San Pedro Immigration and Customs Enforcement male
detention facility I saw my treatments for AIDS lapse. In my final
weeks my fellow inmates attempted to care for me -- in vain. My
final days were spent in a dormitory-style cell -- built to hold 50
men but often houses as many as 80 men and transgender women --
vomiting blood and experiencing severe diarrhea. My fellow
detainees used a cardboard box as a makeshift trash can to gather my
vomit.
I was eventually taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital's
intensive care unit, where I died July 20, 2007 from complications
of AIDS. When I died, I shackled to a bed with two immigration
agents standing guard at my hospital room's door.
~~~~~
Oscar Mosqueda
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Age: 34
I was Oscar Mosqueda, and I was 34 years old, living in Daytona
Beach, Florida. I was dressed in mini-skirt and high heels on the
night I was killed.
My friend Wesley Rosser said he watched as I was shot to death
outside Pasta Amore. A man named Cesar Israel Villazano confessed
to police that he shot me at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, July 29, 2007.
He stated he killed me after I had made an embarrassing sexual
advance to him, but my friend Wesley told police that I died
defending a friend.
One bullet hit me in the head, and I died later that same Sunday at
Halifax Medical Center.
~~~~~
Stefania Coppi (or Stefania Goblets)
Location: Rome, Italy
Age: 35
I was Stefania Coppi, 35, and lived in Rome, Italy. On August 1st,
2007, I was found in a pool of blood in my apartment, with my skull
smashed in.
The police of Rome arrested an Italian man named Domenico Broscella,
35, for the crime, and are looking for a second suspect -- a non-EU
resident who may be Serbian.
~~~~~
Maribelle Reyes
Location: Houston, Texas
Age: Unknown
My name was Maribelle Reyes. I was turned away from several
treatment centers due to being transgender. I died on August 30,
2007, in Houston, Texas, from complications of AIDS.