Trans woman Bee Love was murdered Wednesday night in Clewiston, Fla.

Investigators with the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office in Florida have declined to discuss details regarding the body they found in a burned-out car early Wednesday morning, Sept. 4, in the Clewiston area. But friends have publicly confirmed that the victim was Bee Love, a trans woman in her early 20s.

Love is the 18th transgender person and the 17th trans woman of color murdered since the first of the year.

NBC2 News out Fort Myers reports that the sheriff’s office reporting to a call about a vehicle fire near 13th Street and Virginia Avenue, Harlem, in the Clewiston area, found the body “burned beyond recognition.”

A post on the Facebook page for Trans In-Formation says that Love was “Shot, with her hands tied. This woman was tortured.” Dallas Voice has reached out to Trans In-Formation to ask where that information came from.

WINK News, the CBS affiliate in Fort Myers, has reported that friends of Love believe she was targeted in an anti-transgender hate crime. Kenard Wade told the TV station he had talked to Love, whom he described as his best friend, on the night she died via text messages. She told him that someone was threatening her and that she wanted to leave town because she was “expecting to get in trouble” if she stayed in town.

Love’s death comes within days of the murder of 17-year-old trans woman Bailey Reeves, who was shot to death while leaving a Labor Day party in Baltimore.

SAY THEIR NAMES

Transgender people murdered in the U.S. in as of Sept. 6, 2019 are:
• Chanel Scurlock, 23, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in Lumberton, N.C., on June 6. Javaras Hammonds, 20, has been arrested and charged with robbing and murdering Scurlock.
• Zoe Spears, 23, a black transgender woman, was killed in Fairmount Heights, Md., on June 13. Gerardo Thomas of Baltimore has been arrested and charged in her murder.
• Brooklyn Lindsey, 32, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in Kansas City, Mo., on June 25. Marcus Lewis, 41, has been arrested and charged in her murder. He told police he shot Lindsey after she approached him and tried to solicit him.
• Denali Berries Stuckey, 29, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in North Charleston, S.C., on July 20. Dominick Archield, 34, turned himself in to police and has been charged with her murder.
• Kiki Fantroy, 21, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in Miami on July 31. There have been no arrests that Dallas Voice can find.
• Jordan Cofer, 22, was among the nine victims killed in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug. 4. Cofer’s brother, Connor Betts has been identified as the shooter. He was killed by police within minutes of beginning shooting.
• Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, 24, a black transgender woman, was killed in Allendale County, S.C., on Aug. 4. There have been no arrests.
• Tracy Single, 22, a black transgender woman, was shot to death in Houston on July 30. Joshua Dominic Bourgeois, 25, described as Single’s boyfriend, has been arrested and charged in her murder.
• Bailey Reeves, 17, was shot to death while leaving a Labor Day party in Baltimore on Sept. 2.

In addition: Johana ‘Joa’ Medina, 25, died in an El Paso hospital within hours of being released from ICE custody where her severe health complications went untreated, and Layleen Cubilette-Polanco, aka Layleen Extravaganza, 27, died of complications from epilepsy in a solitary confinement cell at Riker’s Island on June 7. Cubilette-Polanco’s mother, Arecelis Polanco, has filed suit against New York City, alleging that the city’s Department of Corrections and Correctional Health Services personnel failed to provide “safe housing, adequate medical care and proper accommodation for her disabilities.”

— Tammye Nash