His Name Was Sam Nordquist

The horror that Sam Nordquist went through for the last six weeks or so of his life is the type of disgusting violence that you think you’d only see in a movie or read in a book. The Saw or the Hostel movies, despite their gruesome exploitation of violence, mutilation and torture, at least provided a quicker end to the people.

The reports coming out of New York state are stomach-turning and a reminder that human beings can be the biggest monsters ever. Whatever you as a child thought lurked underneath your bed, hid in the shadows or in your closet if the door isn’t closed doesn’t compare to what can be in the mind of a person.

What we know and what I’m about to recount what are from law enforcement reports that might be disturbing. So trigger warning if you want to continue to read. Nordquist, a transgender man had been born and raised in Red Wing, Minn. He was working at a group home for disabled people in Little Canada, Minn. On Sept. 28, 2024, he left to go to New York to meet a woman, Precious Arzuaga, 38, he had started a relationship online and was to return two weeks later.

However, he never returned and his family noted in his communications with them that he was “not like himself.” All communication with Nordquist seemed to cease after Jan. 1. A missing person reported was filed with Canadaigua Police and an investigation in the nearby town of Hopewell at a lodge where Nordquist and Arzuaga were living turned up evidence of an alleged abuse on Feb. 9 after a wellness check was requested.

On Feb. 13, Nordquist’s body was found in a field in Yates County about 50 miles southeast of Rochester, N.Y. Authorities report Nordquist had been abused both physically and sexually over a period beginning in December and ending in early February as he succumbed to the injuries. I will spare those who may have suffered from physical and/or sexual abuse trauma the details. All I can say is it’s sick. It reminds me of the 1965 death of Sylvia Likens, who was only 16, when she was murdered after months of sexually assault, starvation and physical abuse at a household in Indianapolis. Incidentally, that case was made into a movie, An American Crime, where Likens was portrayed by Elliott Page, another transgender man, when he went by Ellen.

Arzuaga and four other suspects, Kyle Sage, 33, Patrick Goodwin, 30, Emily Motyka, 19, and Jennifer Quijano, 30, have all been charged with second-degree murder with depraved influence.

Of course, you’re probably not hearing much about this right now. Yet people used the murder of Laken Riley by Venezuelan Jose Antonio Iberra, 22, an undocumented immigrant, as a rallying cry for border security. At the same time, people are trying to act like transgender people don’t exist. Nordquist was biracial. This news comes as Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, only 11, committed suicide at her home in Gainesville, Texas.

Carranza was being bullied at her school, Gainesville Intermediate School, because other students were saying they were going to call immigration officials on her and her family. Counselors at the school were aware of this and the young student was meeting with him. However, her family was never notified.

Because of course they weren’t. James Ritts, district attorney of Ontario County, N.Y. has said the murder of Nordquist isn’t considered a hate crime. If someone is tortured and sexually assaulted for weeks, I don’t think it’s done out of love. The people who did this hated Nordquist because he was transgender and because he probably wasn’t white. All suspects in the case appear to be white.

According to WHAM: “Sage and Goodwin are both currently on parole. Sage was convicted of larceny and disseminating indecent material to a minor. Goodwin was convicted of first-degree criminal sex act and sexual abuse involving a victim under the age of 11. He’s a registered Level 3 sex offender.”

Ritts has reported that Arzuaga had four misdemeanor convictions on petty larceny, criminal trespass and sell of imitation controlled substance. Family of Nordquist say they were worried about him traveling to meet Arzuaga, who he had been talking with since July of last year. Yet, he felt he was seeking a woman he was in love with and would start an in-person relationship with.

I’m sure there are people who will blame Nordquist for his own fate. There are people who want to put the finger at all sexual abuse victims. I don’t know why. They’re not rapists or predators themselves. But they have the mentality that as long as it doesn’t happen to them that it will never happen. When Matthew Shepherd was murdered back in October 1998, people blamed him saying he was looking to buy drugs as if that made it justifiable. That wasn’t the case.

Five years ago, Breona Taylor was fatally shot when three Louisville police officers in plain clothes issued a “no-knock warrant” while they were sleeping. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot at them as they broke in as anyone would’ve done if they had access to a firearm. Still, people tried to blame Walker and Taylor even though it was later revealed the warrant was issued when the officers knew the person they were looking for wasn’t there.

Only three weeks earlier, Ahmaud Arbery had been murdered while out jogging near Brunswick, Ga. The killers argued that they suspected him of a being a burglar and even tried to defend their actions as they cornered him and drew firearms on him. Arbery was unarmed but they tried to justify it that he had reached for one of their firearms. They weren’t law officers and he wasn’t being detained. Arbery, who was black, was being targeted. Castle doctrine and Stand Your Ground is like bleach – it only works on whites, I guess.

People I have known for years who are usually very pro-firearm ownership, pro-conservative and so forth hated that both cases happened and couldn’t see any logical, rational and especially legal reason for them to happen. They knew it wasn’t justified and people had been targeted and killed just on account of the color of their skin. A line was drawn in the sand.

If this had been five non-white people or five non-LGBTQIA people who had done this to a white straight person, you’d be hearing a lot more about it. Despite what some people think, black/brown people and LGBTQIA aren’t all predators. Brock Turner wasn’t an exception. He’s the rule. He’s a needle in a stack of needles. The reason your parents and grandparents don’t want you to know much about the Civil Rights era is because they were there throwing rotten fruit at little black girls going to school and pouring milk and hot coffee on young black men at diners.

I won’t share it but you can Google the case of Rubin Stacy, if the company is still sucking Trump’s shriveled penis. He who was lynched on July 19, 1935 in Fort Lauderdale. He had been accused of attacking and harming a white woman, Marion Jones. She later admitted that he had only came to her door to ask for food. There is a little girl in the black and white photo mere feet away from Stacy’s hanging body smiling with the evil glee of a psychopath. Little is known about the girl except that her name was probably Angelica.

Years later, I wonder did she look at herself with regret that she had smiled or regret that she had been filmed smiling. Either way, she was probably someone’s wife, mother, grandmother later and doesn’t want this image to come back and haunt her, even though it should. Yes, kids are a projection of their environments. It might explain it but it doesn’t excuse it.

You may not like transgender people but that doesn’t mean that it’s your way or the highway. There’s no question this violence was encouraged by the current political climate. Maybe why you’re not hearing much of it is because Fox News and other conservative news outlets can’t spin it. And Donald Trump and his administration are creating so many problems, people are turning away from the news altogether.

But just because you ignore it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Say his name.

His name was Sam Nordquist.

What do you think? Please comment.