Laura Abarca was a twenty-three-year-old transgender woman working as a prostitute in San Diego, California. This is the second article in a series by Trans True Crime of four murders of transgender women that all occurred between June and December of 1990. Tasha Santiago was originally believed to be a part of these four but was later ruled out. It is still unknown if Laura and the other two victims (which I will be covering in future articles) are connected.
On November 23, 1990 Laura's badly decomposed body was found in a ravine on mile marker 33.5 on Sunrise Highway in Mount Laguna, about four miles South of State Route 79 in California. She was asphyxiated and had her wrists tied behind her back with yellow cord. She had been reported as missing five days prior but was last seen on October 17 of that year. It is unknown to the public as to who had last seen her and who had reported her missing.
In other articles, it has been written that Abarca was discovered to have been undergoing gender reassignment surgery at the time of death. This simply is not possible as she didn't die as a result of vaginoplasty. Due to the lack of knowledge on the subject of transsexuality by some, this confused me at first. What they mean is that upon first examination, they believed a clothed Laura to be female off of secondary sex characteristics but once the medical examiner performed the autopsy, it was found in their minds that a pre-operative Abarca was "male". I hope to clear this up with my article.
NOTE: At this time I cannot locate Laura's family or friends for comment or to receive pictures of her. I have also reached out to the San Diego Sheriff's Department, whom are handling the case. They can't release any pictures of Laura to me or of course reveal any other details about the case.
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