The Murder of Jazz Alford (SOLVED)

Jazz Alford was a thirty-year old transgender woman who was killed on September 23, 2016 at the Kings Inn, in Birmingham, Alabama. She pulled into the motel after car trouble forced her to stay in the city for the night, as she was traveling to meet a transgender friend, Toya Milan. Toya believes that prostitution played a role in Jazz's death; implying Alford was an escort, however reports state that Alford worked as a reservation agent for U.S. Airways.

Jazz was found dead on the floor in her motel room, shot multiple times. On May 5, 2017 twenty-two-year old, Denzell Thomas was indicted for the murder of Alford as well as attempted murder and first-degree robbery in another case, most likely of another transgender victim, who survived.

According to an anonymous friend, Jazz traveled a lot; enjoying visiting Atlanta, Georgia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the most. She was also a very spiritual person who enjoyed to sing.

The Murder of Crystal Edmonds (UNSOLVED)

Crystal Edmonds was a thirty-two-year old transgender woman who was murdered on September 16, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was shot twice in the back of the head. Residents in the 3600 Block of Fairview Avenue in northwest Baltimore heard the gunshots at about 3:18 AM; calling police. Police responded; taking Crystal to the hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

No suspects have been located at this time and there have been very few leads; however investigators believe the case may be related to prostitution, as the area where Edmonds was found had some complaints from residents, with resident Sandra Johnson saying, (paraphrased) "It's terrible around here late at night. They're all around here and in my back alley, everywhere."

The Murder of T.T. Saffore (UNSOLVED)

T.T. Saffore was a twenty-eight-year old transgender woman who was murdered on September 11, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. T.T. was found on the West Side of Chicago lying next to train tracks with multiple stab wounds to her body. A knife, believed to be the murder weapon, was found nearby.

It is believed that another unnamed trans woman may be the killer, as friend of Saffore's said in a statement, "Three days before her death she got into an altercation with another trans woman on Madison." going on to say "The girl pulled a knife on her and said "I'm going to get you killed."" T.T. didn't report the incident to the police out of fear of being mistreated for being transgender, with the friend, Jaliyah Armstrong saying "People don't know what we go through out here. I just want justice for my friend. Trans lives matter. She is the third person killed around here and there is nothing done about it."

Jaliyah remembers Saffore as a "happy, cheerful person" saying (paraphrased) "You could be going through a bad day, but once you saw her all of that would change."

The Murder of Rae'Lynn Thomas (SOLVED)

Rae'Lynn Thomas was a twenty-eight-year old transgender woman who was murdered on August 10, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio by James Allen Byrd, the long-time boyfriend of Rae'Lynn's mother. She was described as "the entertainer of the family"; being the life of every party.

On August 10, 2016, for unknown reasons, James shot Rae'Lynn multiple times then continued by beating her to death, all in front of her mother. He was arrested but was proven incompetent to stand trial, so he was sentenced by Judge Guy Reece of Franklin County in Ohio, to serve one year in a psychiatric hospital, until a treatment believed to be able to fix him, will take effect. Since I haven't been able to find recent reports about the case from this or last year, I believe the treatment(s) did not work; so Byrd is most likely still in the mental hospital.

Despite the psychiatric ward sentencing, the Thomas family believes that James is pretending to be mentally unstable; claiming he "knew exactly what he was doing". The family is hoping a hate crime charge can be filed; however hate crime protections for LGBT people in Ohio does not exist.

Was Skye Mockabee Murdered?

Skye Mockabee was a twenty-six-year old transgender woman who was found dead on August 1, 2016 at eight a.m. in the parking lot of granite and stone products store, Ecclesiastic Granite Fab by the owner, located on West 130th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. Skye was found lying face down and bleeding from her: eyes, nose, and mouth. She had a bruise near her right eyebrow, a small cut and bruise on her nose, and a bruise in the middle of her forehead. She also had scrapes on her left forearm and on each of the heels of her feet. According to the medical examiner's office, Mockabee was not wearing any shoes and only had on one sock. They also noted that both of the bottoms of her feet were dirty.

Toxicology reports show that she took a lethal dose of cocaine the night before her body was discovered. The trauma above her left eye was noted as being minor. Her death is not being investigated as a homicide; however it is still ongoing. Despite this, Skye's family believes that she was murdered because of the fact that she was transgender. Perhaps she may have been forced to use large amounts of cocaine resulting in an overdose to mask an actual homicide? Mockabee's live-in boyfriend says that she went out with a man that she met on July 31st. Maybe this man discovered that she was transgender and didn't care for it, for whatever reason? Seems like a bit of a stretch to me. Personally I believe that the victim was an addict who may have overdosed on her own, not necessarily suicide, but maybe she died with the man she met on July 31st and he never reported it; dumping her body at the granite/stone products store?

The Murder of Dee Whigham (SOLVED)

Dee Whigham was a twenty-five-year old transgender nurse who was murdered on July 23, 2016 at a hotel in St. Martin, Mississippi by twenty-three-year old, Dwanya Hickerson.

From what I've read I believe Dwanya used the trans-panic defense method for his crime against Dee; stabbing her one-hundred-ninety times after having anal sex with her. He claimed he "didn't know" she was transgender; however unless she was post-operative, how could he not have known? Evidence shows he burned Whigham's cellphone before dumping it in a fire pit at a beach in Biloxi. Since investigators couldn't find any interaction between the two prior to the day Dee was killed, they could not prove a "heat of passion" case against Hickerson; in what would have yielded a stronger sentence of manslaughter in the state of Mississippi.

While some believe Dwanya's sentence of only thirty-five years for the murder and eight years for robbery is "too small", District Attorney, Tony Lawrence explains that if convicted of manslaughter in the case of Dee Whigham, Dwanya would have only been sentenced to twenty years in prison, only to be released after ten years. Even a simple murder conviction would still allow him to petition the court to be released from prison as early as the age of fifty-five-years old. The number of stab wounds is a proof of murder, but not manslaughter due to Mississippi's "heat of passion" rule for determining said crime. Going with the murder charge ensures Hickerson will be in prison until the age of sixty-years old. In other words, concerns prosecutors had was that every piece of evidence could be argued either way; resulting in a prosecution of a lesser charge or even an acquittal.

Prosecutors subpoenaed Dee's: phone records, emails, and iCloud pages; however all they could find to prove that the two had been communicating long before the murder, may have occurred on a private messaging app, which cannot be traced. All they could find were messages between the two the day of the murder. Statements from witnesses knew Whigham but did not show that they knew Dee and Dwanya had a previous relationship. The burning of Whigham's cellphone could have been the "smoking gun" to show previous messages between the two. However I feel that the amount of stab wounds and the fact that the phone was destroyed by Hickerson proved to the judge that they knew each other longer than he let on; allowing for the harsher sentence.

The Murder of Deeniquia Dodds (SOLVED)

Deeniquia "Dee Dee" Dodds was a twenty-two-year old transgender woman who was working as a prostitute. She was shot by three men on July 4, 2016; dying nine days later from her injuries at a hospital in Washington, D.C.. The motive for the crime was robbery at the hands of: Jalonte Little, Monte T. Johnson, and Cyheme Hall. A hate crime charge was also issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office; however the lawyer for Cyheme Hall believes the hate crime charge is a "leap" considering he found no information in the initial statements that the victim, as well as other transgender women targeted by the men, were put in harms way because of their gender identity. Johnson's attorney declined to comment, while Little's attorney was not immediately available.

According to a ten-page indictment, three men riding in a white Pontiac spotted Deeniquia on the 200 Block of Division Street NE at three a.m. After robbing her of small items such as: cellphones, earphones, and Metro cards, Dodds was shot in the neck.

Addition of the hate crime charges could alter a sixty year sentence for first-degree murder while armed to ninety years in prison. A fourth person, not listed in the indictment, Shareem Hall of District Heights, Maryland had a hearing scheduled for May 2017. Cyheme and Johnson, twenty-one-years old and Jalonte Little, twenty-six-years old faced formal charges in Superior Court in March 2017; however the outcome is unknown.