Another Brutal Murder

[Shana A]

Another Brutal Murder
Filed by: Tobi Hill-Meyer
June 19, 2009 6:00 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/06/another_brutal_murder.php

Update: As pointed out in the comments below, the original source on this story has pulled it because they cannot verify that this is not a hoax.

-------------------------
the original source says http://www.lauras-playground.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8660

[MeghanAndrews]

There's another post about this going. It would be nice to see some fact-checking before this becomes "news" and makes the community look sensationalistic. A few blog posts and a chat room news item are not too believable IMHO. Hopefully it isn't true, but this story is spreading like wildfire. It's kind of crazy for a story to come out of a chat room and end up all over blogs with no verifiable sources. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it is a hoax.

[Susan]

I dug into this extensively. The event supposedly happened on the 17th of June. I have searched for the name, the state and murder, and just murder in general. I also checked the obituaries in the local newspapers of record. The only posts on this are unsourced or are based off of the initial unsourced post on the original forum. I am sorry people but with the description in the initial post, the news media would have been all over it. I doubt you would be able to turn on TV anywhere and not get inundated with the news of a horrific crime such as this. As such, my suggestion is to wait and see if it ever appears in the media, if it doesn't then most likely it's a faked death.

[mickie88]

i've never seen the Angie Zapata case mentioned even slightly in my area--i found out about it through here.


we don't need this to be a hoax OR for real----NEITHER is good for us!!!

[Susan]

I've never seen the Angie Zapata case mentioned even slightly in my area--i found out about it through here.

But you can find multiple news articles referencing her in a google news search. I can't find anything from media on this one.

[V M]

Virginia is both sad and angry and cries out "Please say it isn't so!!!" 

Also, the sledge hammer has been noted as a favored tool of torture and destruction among Neo Nazi hate groups 

[Mister]

Before anyone misinterprets this as stating the people who did this were justified or I'm blaming the victim, I'm not.

I'm blaming her mother.  If your kid experienced death threats with enough merit for police to get involved, why the hell aren't you packing your kid up and moving away??

[Miniar]

I kind of agree with Mister here...

I mean, if I had had tons of death threats against me or anyone connected to me, I sure as heck wouldn't let anyone go alone, on a bike, to the supermarket, at the very least!
Strength in numbers and all that.

[MaryEllen]

I can assure eveyone reading this thread that this is NOT a hoax. There is an active police investigation ongoing with several suspects in mind which is why it's being kept out of the media.

To answer the statement that the mother is at fault. A little more than a month ago, her parents were involved in a horiffic traffic accident in which her father was killed and her mother permanantly crippled. Her mother was hardly in a position to take her anywhere.

Laura's Playground is a well respected transgender support site and to think that we would stoop so low as to invent such a trash story is unthinkable. We're not the Jerry Springer show, folks.

During some court litigation involving the traffic accident, a lawyer outed Raychel as being transsexual. It is suspected that some local youths decided to rid the world of this "Blight on humanity". As I said, though, this is still an ongoing investigation.

We at Laura's are heartsick over this and can only hope that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime are swiftly brought to justice. We appreciate any prayers and support during this time of tribulation.
May Raychel rest in peace.
Thank you for taking time to read this.

MaryEllen
Site Administrator
Laura's Playground

[Shana A]

Friday, June 19, 2009
Is Empire State Proud Of A Trans Teen's Brutal End?
Posted by Vanessa Edwards Foster at 11:37 PM

http://transpolitical.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-empire-state-proud-of-trans-teens.html

Rachel had just turned 18 in March. She was, until recently, just a regular teen to her friends in school in her town in New York State. She was recently accepted and was to attend the Juilliard School for dance, her muse.

She was supported by her mother and father in pursuing her dreams. Not just dance, but also her surgery. Even at her young age, she was a post-operative transsexual. Not only had she reached her physical goal of not only living, but being the gender she'd always innately known, but she was also a moderator on a transgender chat forum. She served as an inspiration to trans teens from far-flung places who happened onto that list.

Rachel wasn't without her personal tragedies though. Both her parents were recently in a horrible car crash that killed her father and cost her mother one of her arms. Last night, Rachel died in intensive care.

[lisagurl]

I can assure eveyone reading this thread that this is NOT a hoax. There is an active police investigation ongoing with several suspects in mind which is why it's being kept out of the media.

Police reports are public record. The media has access as well as the public to the report. It does not have to contain details of evidence. The fact is you do not even have her real full name or address. How can you verify that there is even such a person? Laura's is a site with many that play games. The Internet is full of misinformation.

[Chaunte]

I live in Upstate NY.  There has not been a single mention on the media whatsoever.  With Marriage Equality, Dignity for all Students and Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act all on the table for a vote, the media would have been all over this.

With all due respect, this appears to be a fabrication.

Shauna

[MaryEllen]

I can only say that if this does turn out to be a gigantic hoax, you all have my most profound apologies. We have been victimized by hoaxes before and I expect it will happen again. It's unfortunate that we as transgendered people are easy targets for any hate group that comes down the road and any incidents such as this must have them clapping their hands with glee, hoax or not.
M E

[Flan]

I'm going to have to add another voice in the choir of skepticism, no MSM stories about it, no police PR/reports, nothing but a very gory forum and blog re-re-posted story (or was it a story that got more detailed at it went through the blogosphere...)

Maybe they wanted to make a new persona on the internet, maybe they wanted to just plain leave the 'net, I don't know, but until the truth comes out, I'm going to have to keep this at a healthy distance. (as my initial reaction was enough to go to the gun store again even though I don't really have the money for a new "best friend")

[Hazumu]

The story is terrible.  It's visceral.  It hit me at a gut level.

I too have spent the last two days looking on the internet for corroboration, trying various combinations of the details presented.

So far, the only reports I find are of the 'a friend of a friend said' variety.

If it's true, if this has in fact happened, it needs to be told far and wide.

But there's a huge danger if this ends up on SNOPES.COM with a big, fat FALSE, and the trans community's credibility damaged.

I pray the community does not 'go public' with this until the story has official verification, and anyone can independently verify the events.

What town?

What high school?

What trucking company?  (The trial was public, records are available.)

As I said, it's a terrible story.

But I must await verification.

Karen

[hizmom]

administrator laura on
laura's playground has
retracted the story and
labeled it a hoax

[MeghanAndrews]

I can assure eveyone reading this thread that this is NOT a hoax. There is an active police investigation ongoing with several suspects in mind which is why it's being kept out of the media.


MaryEllen
Site Administrator
Laura's Playground

http://www.lauras-playground.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8660


This is the post that hizmom was referring to (thank for the link Flan). I think we can learn something valuable here. Just because we think we know people online, just because we get to "know" someone for a year in talking to them on a chat room, DOES NOT make it reality. Should you question who you believe? Should you question what's real and what's not? OMG! YES!!! We shouldn't be logging on to a computer and losing our common sense. This is a tragic story even as a hoax for a lot of reasons.

[phantom_heart]

When i posted the link on here i did find it funny that nothing was on sites like msn and began to wonder. This is just ..not good thats all i can say. With the amount of people who got involved...it could start to look real bad on the trans community if anyone goes to the press or something. Gosh knows why they would but man...who thinks this stuff up!

[V M]

Virginia sighs a sigh of relief...

Although it is in poor taste to perpetrate such a hoax, I would rather feel a fool than to have one of our folks fall victim to such a horrible crime 

[MaryEllen]

It is with much chargrin and embarrassment that I must admit that this has been a gigantic hoax. The information that I provided above was thought to be true, provided to us by what we thought was a reliable source. Upon a lot of investigating on our own, we found that this was not the case. We have been "Had" royally so it seems. This is not over. We will continue to investigate untill we get to the bottom of this. I know you all think that we're a bunch of fools over at Laura's and maybe you're right. We sure did get fooled on this one.
Again, I apologize for all the turmoil that this hoax has caused.

MaryEllen