This happened in Western NY a few towns over from where I grew up.
The transgender hate spewed by Trump and republicans led to this.
https://www.thelcn.com/news/update-lima-teen-among-5-charged-in-connection-with-murder-of-missing-transgender-man/article_11ed2e64-ebaa-11ef-a9c7-4fc507d7d22d.html
CANANDAIGUA — Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man who was reported missing in February, was tortured repeatedly for more than a month before he was killed, according to state police.
Five people, including a Lima teenager, have been charged with his murder, according to state police
From early December 2024 to February 2025, Nordquist was subjected to “repeated acts of violence and torture which ultimately led to his death,” said Capt. Kelly Swift, head of Troop E’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Swift said state police had not ruled out the possibility that hate crime charges could be filed in the case. She said at a Friday press conference that is part of the ongoing investigation.
Nordquist is originally from Minnesota and traveled to the Finger Lakes area last September. He was last known to be staying at the motel. He was reported missing Feb. 9 after his family requested a welfare check.
Human remains believed to be Nordquist's were discovered Feb. 13 in a field off Payne Road in the town of Benton, Yates County. The field is about 20 miles from the motel.
The five people arrested moved the body from the motel to cover up the murder, Swift said.
“In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I’ve ever investigated,” Swift said.
The five individuals were arrested Feb. 13 and charged with second-degree murder under the depraved indifference statute, troopers said. They are:
Precious N. Arzuaga, 38, of Canandaigua.
Emily Jean Motyka, 19, of Lima.
Jennifer A. Quijano, 30, of Geneva.
Kyle R. Sage, 33, of Canandaigua.
Patrick A. Goodwin, 30, Canandaigua.
Goodwin was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2015 for 1st degree criminal sexual act and 1st degree sexual abuse, according to state prison records. He was released in 2023.
He went to prison for having sex with a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, according to the state sex offender’s registry.
Sage was sentenced to two to four years in state prison in 2022 for 4th degree grand larceny and 1st degree dissemination of indecent material to a minor. He got out in 2024.
Ritts said "the facts and the circumstances of this crime are beyond depraved."
"This is by far the worst homicide investigation that our office has ever been a part of," Ritts said. "It is an ongoing investigation, so we are necessarily limited in the things that we can talk about. But no human being should have to endure what Sam endured."
Family members of Nordquist told KTSP-TV in St. Paul, Minn., and WROC-TV in Rochester that he had traveled to the Finger Lakes area from an online relationship.
Kayla Nordquist, his sister, told KTSP-TV in a telephone interview while the family traveled to New York that she did not trust the person Sam Nordquist was traveling to meet "and I begged Sam not to go meet her, but he felt that he was in love."