Body of 19-year-old Chicago Black Trans Woman Found in June 2020, Finally Identified in April 2021

On June 6, 2020, the body of an unidentified young Black trans person was found in an abandoned building at 7908 S Laflin in Chicago.

https://twitter.com/KaylaraOwl/status/1292173435750277123

Koko Nia Labeija was born 29 May 2001 in Chicago where she grew up. She attended Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School The school held a memorial event this past Friday. She worked at Oberweis Creamery. She described herself as “a makeup artist in the making.” She was a fan of the Kardashians.

Her Twitter profile reads:

“Hey guys and gals. I love the Kardashians/Jenners. My favorite word is Bible. I love Fashion and makeup. Peace out.”

The website TDOR was deemed essential is helping to identify Koko. This site memorializes the lives and deaths of transgender victims of violence around the world. This is her tribute page.

The message also said that her page on tdor.translivesmatter.info (which listed her as “Name Unknown”) was key to her identification in the city morgue (which had predictably misgendered her). Visibility of victims matters so, so much.

How very sad that it took a year or longer to identify Koko. And we still don’t know how…