Pa. community in shock over murder of 14-year-old transgender girl; DA seeks hate crime charge

Advocates for the transgender community remain in shock a week after a 14-year-old girl was brutally murdered and dismembered in western Pennsylvania.

For Corinne Goodwin, the executive director of the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, the murder of Pauly Likens hits home with the gut-wrenching statistics on violence against the transgender individuals.

“You get to a point where you almost become numb,” said Goodwin, who is transgender. “It almost becomes an expectation where you go…yeah….another one.”

The remains of Pauly Likens of Sharon in Mercer County, began washing ashore last Tuesday along banks of the Shenango River Lake, police said. The Mercer County coroner has ruled that she died by sharp force trauma to her head before being sawed into pieces and abandoned in locations around the lake.

DaShawn Watkins, a 29-year-old man from Sharon, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, among other charges. He is being held without bail at the Mercer County Prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 25.

Pauly’s killing marks the 24th murder of a transgender person in the United States in less than a year. Goodwin is marking that timeframe from last year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“We see this stuff unfortunately all too often,” Goodwin said. “We are six months from last year’s Remembrance Day. That’s 24 people who have lost their lives who we know about. There are a lot more we don’t know about because, frankly the media and often family misgenders people who are murdered because of their lack of acceptance or embarrassment or whatever the situation. Every one of these is a tragedy and, this one in particular, because Pauly was so young and my understanding is that she had a supportive family.”

In a short written statement shared with PennLive, Pauly’s mother, Jen McClure said: “I just want to say what a beautiful, loving person she was and that the hate has got to stop!!!”

Liz Morsillo, Pauly’s aunt said: “Pauly’s sheer presence touched everyone she met. She loved to shop, get her nails done and loved nature. She aspired to be a park ranger like her aunt.”

According to the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, a transgender and gender-expansive advocacy group, Pauly is at least the 20th murder of a transgender or gender-expansive Pennsylvanian in the past 10 years, and the youngest.

Pauly would have turned 15 on July 6.

In a phone interview with PennLive, Mercer County District Attorney Peter Acker on Monday said he is pursuing state hate crime charges against Watkins.

“The position of state police is that it is not a hate crime because the alleged perpetrator was an admitted homosexual and the victim was transgender or transitioning,” said Acker. “However, as I said I got a 14-year-old dead kid who was brutally murdered and dismembered. That kid deserves justice.”

Acker said he had spoken to the office of the U.S. District Attorney’s office and understands that the federal hate crimes statute could still be used in the case even though both the victim and the suspect belong to protected groups.

Acker confirmed that Watkins told police he had arranged to meet someone the evening of June 22 through the dating app Grinder. Police used Pauly’s phone tracking to place her at a specific location along the reservoir in the early morning hours of June 23.

Using cell phone records, social media and surveillance video, police said Likens was at the Budd Street Public Park and Canoe Lunch on June 23 for some time and appeared to be waiting to meet someone.

During that time, police said they identified a suspect vehicle, which they later learned belonged to Watkins.

Video footage shows Watkins leaving his apartment near the lake multiple times, carrying multiple bags and garbage bags, police said. At one point, he appeared to be struggling to carry a large duffel bag.

Acker said police do not yet have a motive. He said the local community remains shaken by the murder.

“Originally it was a missing 14-year-old,” Acker said. “Then pieces started showing up at the local lake. The first day the pieces found were from the pelvic area wrapped in plastic….and then the other hand was found across the lake in the campground and the head was found in the beaver pond at the other end of the reservoir.

“Obviously all first-degree murder cases are extremely significant cases but a gruesome dismemberment of 14-year-old kid….I‘ve seen dismemberments before a number of times but this is one of the worst.”

Pauly’s murder has drawn national attention as it underscores the growing violence against transgender individuals as well as the application of federal hate crime laws.

State lawmakers have long attempted to again expand Pennsylvania’s Ethnic Intimidation Act after a 2002 law adding sexual orientation to the statute was struck down by Commonwealth Court.

The statute provides for criminal penalty enhancements for violent crimes if the person who commits the crime does so motivated by malicious intention based on certain characteristics including race, color, national origin, or religion.

“That doesn’t prevent violence but it’s a way of punishing perpetrators who do this type of violence and when you look at this particular crime and how this young person’s body was discovered, there’s no doubt it was a hate crime,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said change must begin at the individual level.

“People need to get to know transgender people as people and not as this monolithic community that they don’t know anything about,” Goodwin said. “It’s this type of thing that breeds fear and creates violence or the environment for violence.”

Goodwin noted that crimes and violence against transgender people are not confined to certain geographic areas.

“If you look at those 24 people who have been murdered over the past eight months most of them are not necessarily from rural areas,” Goodwin said. “Violence against transgender people is a problem in rural, urban and suburban communities. The difference is that potentially in a more urban area you have access to more resources. Maybe Pauly would have had a safe place to gather.”

Liz Bradbury, head of Keystone Equality, a PA-based LGBTQ advocacy organization, noted that transgender women in particular face risks, especially on social media.

“When people talked about safe sex 10 years ago or 20 years ago, they would talk about taking precautions against STDs or AIDS,” she said. ‘Now when people talk about safe sex they talk about who they are going to have sex with from dating apps. It’s a whole different circumstance with regard to safe sex.

She said people, particularly in rural areas, seek connection through apps because they can’t find community in schools.

“They end up seeking out like-minded people online and that’s a terrible thing because they are too young. But it’s available to the them,” said Bradbury. “You can’t blame apps. You have to blame society for not creating certain circumstances for your people to create supportive spaces where they can be themselves and live their authentic lives.”

Among the grim statistics of violence against trans people:

• Between 2017 and 2023, there were 263 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people.
• From 2017 to 2023, 73% of these people were killed with a gun.
• From 2017 to 2023, more than six in 10 gun homicides of transgender and gender-expansive people (63%) were of Black trans Women.
• One in 10 gun homicides of transgender and gender-expansive people were trans Latinas.
• This violence disproportionately impacts young people— 57% of victims were under the age of 30.