The Murder of London Kiki Chanel (SOLVED)

In May 2015 London Kiki Chanel, a twenty-one-year old transgender woman was murdered at an abandoned house in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Originally from Victoria, Texas, London moved to Pennsylvania several years before her murder; living at Covenant House, an LGBT youth shelter and crisis center in Germantown.

Raheam Felton, a thirty-one year old man plead guilty to third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime. He apologized for the crime. The reasoning for Chanel's murder was that she allegedly "snitched" about Raheam "sexually touching" her the previous year. Both inside an abandoned building on the 2200 block of Ingersoll Street, an argument ensued between the two over London's accusations of sexual assault against Felton. This led Raheam to stab her twice in the back and once in the neck with a pocketknife inside a middle bedroom on the third floor of the building.

Rahaem and an unnamed witness carried Chanel's body out of the house; placing her on the front lawn and onto quilts to perform CPR. The pair saw a School District of Philadelphia officer patrolling the area. They flagged him down, with him calling Philadelphia police, who took both Felton and the witness into custody. While in custody, Raheam confessed to the murder. Chanel was rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after one a.m.

Investigators believe London's murder to be domestic in nature and are not labeling it a hate crime. In June 2016 a judge sentenced Rahaem Felton to twenty-two to forty-four years in prison.