FORT MYERS – A transgender woman was burned to death then left behind a garbage bin when Fort Meyer’s police found her.
The woman was identified as Yaz’min Shancez, 31. Police said that she was discovered behind a garbage bin at a rental facility in Fort Meyers.
On June 20 police were able to identify the victim as Eddie James Owen but, after talking to family, they were informed Owen identified as a woman and had been going by a different alias since about 2004, according to police reports.
Police have not identified this homicide as a hate crime but Ross Murray, a spokesman from GLAAD, an LGBT organziation, told Naples News that he didn’t know if this was a hate crime but said ““no one deserves to be violently murdered and set on fire and put behind a Dumpster.”
When the victim’s father, Harvey Loggins, arrived to the crime scene the ground was still charred and bloody, he told the Naple News. Loggins said he didn’t hate Shancez for what he was.
“Still to this day I love him. I wish he was here right now,” Loggins, who still refers to the victim as a male, said.
On June 22, about 200 people came out to Centennial Park in Fort Meyers to hold a vigil for Shancez. Family and friends told Naples News that it meant a lot to celebrate her this way.
“It means so much to me because I never knew so many people could love a person like that,” Tasha Furlow, Shancez’s aunt,who also refers to the victim as a male, told Naples News. Sometimes you feel like nobody’s there for him because of the way he was, but his family was there for him. I’m happy to see other people here for him.”
According to a report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs in 2013, 89% of the victims of anti-LGBTQ homicides were women of color, like Sanchez.
Police are still looking for suspects in this case. If you have any information call Crimeline at 407-423-8477
