Tracy Single

The number of transgender women murdered this year in the U.S. now stands at 15, with the total number of trans people killed this year in this country at 16.

Activist and blogger Monica Roberts reported in her blog TransGriot yesterday that a woman found dead around 3:34 a.m. on July 30 in a gas station parking lot in the 11000 block of I-10 was in fact 22-year-old transgender woman Tracy Single.

Local news stations in early reports said the woman “did not die of natural causes” and Houston police were investigating, Roberts said. But Houston PD took a week to tell trans community leaders that the woman was transgender and had indeed been murdered and to ask for help in identifying her. Community members were finally able to identify her during an Aug. 11 town hall meeting organized by Dee Dee Watters.

In addition to being the 16th trans person murdered in the U.S. this year, Single is the third trans woman murdered this year in Texas and the 12th trans woman under age 30 murdered this year in the country. All of the 15 trans women who have been murdered have been women of color. The 16 trans murder was Jordan Cofer, a trans man who died in the Aug. 4 mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

Anyone with information on Single’s murder is asked to call the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

 

Say Their Names:
Trans women murdered in 2019

  • Dana Martin, 31, a black transgender woman, was shot to death Jan. 6 in Montgomery, Ala. She was found in her vehicle, in a roadside ditch, and pronounced dead at the scene. Her murder remains unsolved.
  • Jazzaline Ware, age unknown, a black transgender woman, was found dead in her Memphis apartment in March, and her death is being investigated as a homicide.
  • Ashanti Carmon, 27, a black transgender woman, was shot to death March 30 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Her murder remains unsolved.
  • Claire Legato, 21, a black transgender woman, was shot April 15 in Cleveland during an argument between her mother and the suspect, John Booth. She died May 14 in a local hospital.
  • Muhlaysia Booker, 23, a black transgender woman, was shot to death May 18 in Dallas, about a month after video of her being beaten by several men in the parking lot at her apartment complex as onlookers laughed and jeered. She was found lying face down in the middle of the street in East Dallas. Kendrell Lavar Lyles was arrested in June and charged with his murder.
  • Michelle “Tamika” Washington, 40, a black transgender woman, was shot to death May 19 in Philadelphia. Police responding to reports of shots fired in the Franklinville neighborhood, found Washington suffering from several gunshot. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Troy Bailey, 28, has been arrested and charged with her murder.
  • Paris Cameron, 20, a black transgender woman, was among three people killed in an anti-LGBTQ shooting May 25 in Detroit. Alunte Davis, 21, and Timothy Blancher, 20, two gay men, were found dead at the scene; Cameron died shortly afterward at a hospital. Two other victims were also shot but survived. Devon Robinson, 18, has been arrested and charged in all three murders.
  • Chynal Lindsey, 26, a black transgender woman, was found dead in White Rock Lake in Dallas on June 1. Police said her body showed signs of “homicidal violence.” Ruben Alvarado, 22, has been arrested and charged with her murder.
  • Chanel Scurlock, 23, a black transgender woman, was shot to death June 6 in Lumberton, N.C. There have been no arrests yet, but investigators have said they have good leads in the case.
  • Zoe Spears, 23, a black transgender woman, was found lying in the street with signs of trauma near Eastern Avenue in Fairmount Heights, Md. on June 13 and later pronounced dead.
  • Brooklyn Lindsey, 32, a black transgender woman who was shot to death on the front porch of an abandoned home in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 25.
  • Denali Berries Stuckey, 29, a black transgender woman shot to death in North Charleston, S.C., on July 20. Dominick Archield turned himself into police and has been charged in her murder.
  • Marquis “Kiki” Fantroy, 21, shot to death near the area of SW 224 Street and SW 115 Court in Miami on July 31.
  • Jordan Cofer, 22, was among the nine victims killed in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug 4. Cofer was only out to a handful of close friends but used the pronouns he/him/his on his social media profiles. Cofer’s brother, Connor Betts, the gunman in that shooting, was killed by police during the incident.
  • Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, 24, a black transgender woman, was found dead in a car parked in a driveway in Allendale County, S.C., on Aug. 4.
  • ALSO: Johana “Joa” Medina, 25, a transgender refugee from El Salvador, died June 1 in an El Paso hospital, shortly after being granted asylum and released from ICE custody, where she had been six weeks, during which she had become increasingly ill.
  • AND: Layleen Polanco, 27, was found dead in a cell at Rikers Island Prison in New York, where she had been kept in solitary confinement. She had been arrested April 16 for possession of drugs and assault on a cab driver. The NY Department of Corrections has not yet released her cause of death, but has said it was not a result of “violence or foul play.”