TDoR 2016 / 2016 / March / 02 / Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson


Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson

Age 16

2 Mar 2016
Burlington, Iowa (USA)
Shot

TDoR list ref: tgeu/2-Mar-2016/Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson

Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson [photo: www.advocate.com]

Kedarie/Kandicee was a teenager who used two names and identified as transgender and genderfluid.

Their body was found with a plastic garbage bag wrapped around their head and multiple gunshot wounds in an alley at around 11:30pm on 2nd March.

On an unseasonably cold Wednesday evening last year, 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson stopped by a close friend’s house to try on bras.

As the two talked, the normally jovial Burlington High School student shared that they were scared of a man named “Lumni.” They said they’d noticed a mysterious red car following them that day. They weren't sure who was behind the wheel or where the vehicle was as they spoke.

Kedarie didn’t stay long at their friend’s house. They asked to borrow a few of the bras they’d modeled, and the friend, 15 at the time, obliged. Kedarie tucked the undergarments into their black and blue school backpack and braced against the biting wind as they walked into the night alone.

Their quick exchange was one of the last times Kedarie Johnson was seen alive.

In November 2017 a jury in Keokuk, Iowa, convicted Jorge "Lumni" Sanders-Galvez, 23, of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Ten months later Jaron Purham, 26 (who was arrested near St. Louis about two weeks after the murder driving the same red Chevrolet Impala that picked up Johnson, with the murder weapon on the floor of the driver's side seat) was also found guilty of first-degree murder. He also faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

TvT project: The Advocate & The Hawk Eye, 04.03.2016

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/10/06/kedarie-johnson-genderfluid-murder-jaron-purham/

https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2018/10/05/jaron-purham-murder-trial-verdict-guilty-first-degree-murder-kedarie-johnson-slaying/1532880002/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2017/10/23/motive-killing-kedarie-johnson-iowa-teen-jury/792342001/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2017/10/21/kedarie-johnson-iowa-teen-murder-hate-crime/771496001/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/15/feds-murder-case-gender-fluid-teen-killed-iowa/766330001/

https://www.theroot.com/man-found-guilty-in-murder-of-16-year-old-gender-fluid-1820140296

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kedarie-johnson-murder-verdict_us_59fcc6dbe4b0baea2631b0a4

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kedarie-johnson-murder-trial-jorge-sanders-galvez-burlington-iowa-gender-fluid-teen-lgbt-a8014751.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/us/kedarie-johnson-verdict-iowa.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/15/feds-murder-case-gender-fluid-teen-killed-iowa/766330001/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/transgender-iowa-murder-trial-kedarie-johnson.html

https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/3/16/iowa-community-mourns-death-gender-fluid-teen-kedariekandicee-johnson

http://www.thehawkeye.com/3c6dfc82-b2bf-545c-bcc0-771f761d8b03.html

Report added: 18 Sep 2018. Last updated: 13 Jan 2021

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