Two trans women of colour killed within 48 hours
Mya Young and Veronica Banks Cano died within two days of each other.
Philadelphia Police officers have confirmed that the body of a 25-year-old black transgender woman found over the weekend belonged to Mya Young, according to WPVI-TV.
Young was reportedly stabbed to death in the Frankford neighbourhood, the local station reported.
Police rushed Young to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:21 a.m. on Sunday. No further information has been released about the homicide.
The day before, the body of black trans woman Veronica Banks Cano was found in a bathtub at a motel in San Antonio.
Authorities said Cano was fully clothed in the tub with some water, according to KABB-TV.
There were no obvious signs of trauma, and police are questioning others who were in the motel room.
A spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department said that autopsy results will determine Cano’s cause of death – and any charges are pending further investigation.
A GoFundMe page was started to cover Cano’s funeral expenses, and a service is planned for Tuesday night.
“What can I say, you were true to yourself, never a dull moment. Putting on your makeup and modelling your outfits. That’s how I’ll remember you,” Cano’s friend, Joe Mendez, wrote in a tribute on Facebook.
Last month, another trans woman was found dead in the US state – making her the first known trans woman to be murdered in the US in 2016.
43-year-old trans woman Monica Loera was shot and killed on her own doorstep in Austin.
However, the Human Rights Campaign criticised police in Texas for repeatedly referring to Ms Loera by her birth name and misgendering her.
A number of local media outlets reported a police plea for information which identified the victim as “David Loera” and circulated an old pre-transition driver’s license photo.
29-year-old Jon Casey Rowell has since been arrested in connection with the murder.
Three days before Loera’s murder, 26-year-old black trans man Nino Jackson also disappeared in Dallas.
Police in the suburb of Rowlett found Jackson’s abandoned vehicle on the side of a highway bridge spanning a large lake, and his body was pulled from the water three weeks later.
A spokesman for the Rowlett Police Department told Towleroad that Jackson suffered from depression and is believed to have committed suicide by jumping from the bridge.
