A photo of Ally Lee Steinfeld, a transgender teen whose birth name was Joseph Matthew Steinfeld Jr., at an unknown age. (Courtesy of Amber Steinfeld via AP)The body discovered by police had been butchered — eyes gouged out, genitals slashed. “It was brutal,” the sheriff said.
The remains of the 17-year-old transgender girl were also torched.
Her bones were stuffed in a plastic bag and placed in a chicken coop near a dented trailer in Cabool, a small Ozarks town in southern Missouri.
Blood still stained the carpet in the living room when police searched the mobile home for clues to the disappearance of Ally Lee Steinfeld.
Last week, authorities charged the trailer’s owner, Briana Calderas, 24, and two others, Andrew Vrba and Isis Schauer, both 18, in connection with Steinfield’s death. A fourth man, James Grigsby, 25, faces felony counts of abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.
Born Joseph Matthew, Steinfeld had only announced her transition in May, stating on Instagram, “I am proud to be me I am proud to be trans I am beautiful I don’t care what people think.”
“I am me and u can accept or leave,” she added in another post.
But the details surrounding the Missouri killing are far from clear. Chief among the open questions: what could have triggered such a brutal outburst of violence?
Despite the stats and anecdotes about crimes perpetuated against transgender individuals, local authorities insist the victim’s gender identity was not in play. On Wednesday, prosecutors announced the defendants would not be charged with a hate crime.
“I would say murder in the first-degree is all that matters,” prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. told the Associated Press. “That is a hate crime in itself.”
Isis Schauer, Andrew Vrba, James Grigsby and Briana Calderas. (Texas County Sheriff’s Office/Kansas City Star via AP)Steinfeld is the 21st transgender person killed in 2017, according to a count by Human Rights Campaign. In 2016, the organization tracked 22 transgender murders — the most ever tallied in a year.
Amber Steinfeld, the victim’s mother, did not return a message for comment. But in an interview with the Associated Press, she described her daughter as “loving and kind-hearted.”
Ally Lee Steinfeld had been engaged to a woman until the relationship ended in August. She then began dating Calderas.
Amber Steinfeld told the AP her daughter, Calderas, Vrba and Schauer were all living in the Cabool trailer before Steinfeld disappeared in September.
Citing police reports, the Daily Beast reported this week “tensions were high in the days before Steinfeld’s death.” A physical altercation in early September between Steinfeld and Vrba was the source of the strain. Police believe the victim was murdered two days after the fight. Vrba reportedly told police he “had to kill” Steinfeld. Calderas and Schauer may have known of his plan.
Vrba initially tried to poison Stenfield.
When she refused to drink the poisoned liquid, Vrba reached for a knife.
To help dispose of Steinfeld’s body, the three turned to James Grigsby, the Kansas City Star reported. The paper added:
“Grigsby stated that Vrba told him he had tortured and killed Steinfeld and that Calderas had asked for his (Grigsby’s) assistance with disposing of the remains,” court documents state, adding that Grigsby admitted to detectives that he went to the residence with the other three, placed burnt human remains into a plastic sack and hid them near a shed.
All four are currently being held without bail.
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