Ruby Ordeñana Mendieta/Ruby Rodriguez
Age 2716 Mar 2007
San Francisco, California (USA)
Strangled
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/16 Mar 2007/Ruby Rodriguez
Ruby was found naked in the street near Interstate 280 in the Potrero Hill district. She had been strangled.
A vigil was held a week after her murder, at the corner of 24th and Mission Streets, known as the "Corner of the Nicas", while a memorial altar was placed in César Chávez and Indiana streets next to the place where the body was found.
Her family could not afford to have her body transported home to Nicaragua.
Ordenana – also known as Ruby Rodriguez – was a 27-year-old transgender woman living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was originally from Nicaragua and had immigrated to the United States like many others, to make a better life for herself. She was involved within the local community, attending area support groups and attending language classes.
She was also a sex worker in the Tenderloin district, fighting issues of drug addiction, and struggling with immigration.
On March 16, 2007 — a little before 6:00 a.m. — Ruby’s body was discovered on the sidewalk of Indiana Street in San Francisco by her friends. She was stripped of her clothes, and presumably dumped there by her killer. She had been strangled to death.
Donzell Francis, 41, was arraigned on her murder and other charges on attacking other trans women in the area in San Francisco Superior Court.
Lesbia Ordeñana, sister of the victim, stated that due to the economic problems they face, it is really impossible for them to be able to pay for the repatriation expenses of their sister's body.
She explained that in the Consular Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs they confirmed that they did not have funds destined for the repatriation of corpses. The cremation of a corpse has a cost of 1100 dollars, and the repatriation of the ashes could be done through the Nicaraguan consulate in San Francisco, recalled Martinez.
The drawback that there is, according to Martinez, is that it is necessary to present a letter where Rudy's family signs their consent. Ruby traveled to the United States with the intention of meeting three of her paternal uncles living in San Francisco, but the first attempt was frustrated after a group of criminals assaulted her and beat her in Guatemala.
Then she invested three thousand dollars that a relative gave her so that a coyote could move her to San Francisco, which she achieved, and she dedicated herself to studying English and working presumably at a fast food stand.
http://www.carlaantonelli.com/noticias_marzo2007.htm
https://happening-here.blogspot.com/2007/03/goodbye-dear-ruby.html
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Slain-sex-worker-identified-as-2607706.php
