Posted on 10/19/2002 12:09:26 PM PDT by chance33_98
3 charged with murder in cross-dresser's death By Michelle Locke Associated Press
NE WARK, Calif. -- Three young men were charged with murder Friday in the hate-crime slaying of a cross-dressing 17-year-old boy whose body was found in a shallow grave two weeks after he disappeared from a party.
Police said Eddie Araujo showed up at the house party as a girl named "Lida," and was assaulted and killed after they discovered he was a boy.
The defendants reportedly beat him, gashing his head and then dragged his semiconscious body to the garage, where they tightened a rope around his neck until he seemed dead. Then they drove his body to a remote spot in the Sierra foothills and buried him in a shallow grave, a police affidavit said.
"They're going to pay for what they did," said Araujo's aunt, Imelda Guerrero. "I hope everybody out there who sees this learns something from this because he was a beautiful person inside and out."
Michael William Magidson, 27, Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, and Jose Antonio Merel, 24, all of Newark, appeared in court on charges of murder with a hate-crime enhancement Friday. They entered no pleas and were held without bail.
Nabors' lawyer, Robert J. Beles, said his client was a college student who had no violence in his background.
"There's no bias in him," Beles said, nothing to indicate that Nabors "would actively participate in any type of homophobic activity."
A fourth suspect arrested Wednesday, Jose's brother Paul Richard Merel Jr., 25, was not charged in the slaying. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had been released from jail, where he also faced a parole violation. Prosecutors left without commenting outside court.
Araujo had been dressing like a girl "for some time," and had clashed with the suspects about a week before the Oct. 3 party, said Newark police Lt. Tom Milner.
The boy was reported missing by his mother when he didn't come home from the party.
On Wednesday, two weeks later, police said Nabors confessed and led them to the body, buried about 150 miles east of his home in Newark, a San Francisco suburb.
"We're dealing with a number of people who could have helped, stepped in, prevented or reported this," said Lt. Lance Morrison. "None of them did."
It remained unclear whether the teen died in Newark or in the wilderness area where he was found, near the Silver Fork campground in El Dorado County. The site was so remote, it could only be reached by a four- wheel-drive vehicle, Milner said.
Araujo identified himself as both a male and a female, sometimes also going by the name Gwen, Milner said. His aunt said singer Gwen Stefani was one of his favorites.
In a recent family photo, Araujo had carefully groomed eyebrows and makeup and his hair was highlighted and cut into a shoulder-length bob.
"We're just trying to put him to rest and bury him with dignity," said Guerrero, declining to comment on her nephew's cross-dressing.
"We want to remember him as the human being that he was," she said, crying. "Nobody deserves to take his life, his young life, he didn't deserve it."
He was liked by those who knew him, said Newark Unified School District Superintendent Ken Sherer.
"He was always smiling, he selected his friends very carefully and, according to some students, he did have more female friends than male," he said.
Araujo had attended Newark schools from kindergarten, but showed up at school only about half the time as he grew older. Since the eighth grade, he had been an independent-study student, meeting with a teacher once a week. He would have been a senior, but didn't show up at Crossroads High School this fall, Sherer said.
Perverts will never be 'accepted' by normal people, and they harder they push for 'acceptance' the more inevitable incidents such as this will be.
'Hate Crime' laws can't protect you from being harmed, and they breed a backlash against you when they are invoked against normal people who lash out at you.
Stay under your rocks, perverts. You're safer there.
If you don't consider a cross-dresser to be a class-A pervert I have to wonder "WTF' the deal is with you.
Where was this discovery made, in a bedroom? No mention of the boy's father. The murder is hideous - they could have just booted his thonged rear end out onto the street - but this confused lad should have known that he was inviting some kind of trouble. This poor sap apparantly though he could go through life with a revolving gender, and nobody would mind. If there were a father in the picture, which I doubt, there's a good chance this kid would have been set straight long before party age.
I suspect that the one(s) who discovered the she was a he, killed because of the severe humiliation. If they think this was bad, wait til they end up being boy toys in the slammer. Idiots. Multiple points scored here for Darwin.
That is one way to look at it. Or, even if these three murderers were sickened, they could have merely tossed him out of the house. I do not think they needed to beat, kill, and bury him.
Your rapid defense of those three and blaming of the 'pervert' for his own murder is a sad conclusion for a rational adult.
You consider these boys to be normal? They violently murdered this 17 year old boy. That is norman? In what country is that normal? It is not normal...whether you consider the boys actions to be right or wrong...dressing as a girl. Obviously the 17 year old had issues...which we do not understand. You don't go around killing people that you think are weird...or different. It is not normal.
I don't find anywhere in the article that suggests the boy was a pervert...in the general sense of the word - normally meaning a sexual sicko -
He was 17 for gods sake...
Pablum. Intolerance does not kill. Intolerance convinces someone that they do not want to associate with someone else. Nothing wrong with that.
Look, killing is wrong. This boy did not deserve to be killed. But his behavior was extremely non-standard for our society. That behavior carries risks. I'm sure he knew the risks, and did it anyway. That was his right. It is sad that he was killed for his choice.
I would also say that this boy did not seem to accept himself as a boy. It went beyond dressing for a thrill. He took a girl's name and went to a party and tried to pose as a girl. I'd say that's mental illness in action and the great tragedy is that his mental illness is supposed to be "accepted" nowadays -- so he never got the help he desperately needed. Perhaps, with a little less acceptance, he'd still be alive today.
Well we will agree to disagree on that subject. I think history has proven time after time that intolerance does kill.
Pointing out that such 'lashing out' (my words) is inevitable is a mighty tepid defense, T.O.O.
Some might even call it damning with faint praise.
Or is that too subtle for you?
(Don’t confuse 'subtle' with 'satire' now…)
We have no common ground on which to debate then.
You do not consider someone that cross dresses to be acting out a perverion. Can I also assume you do not consider Homosexuals to be perverted? It would figure...that you are someone that equates "Tolerance" with goodness no matter what the twisted, sick, convoluted lifestyle one may engage in as long as their happy, right?
No matter how ignorantly prideful and selfish one is that's just fine with you as long as they're not hurting any one else? Is this the way you think?
Somehow, I think the more likely reality was that these were just intollerant people who lost control in a way civilzed society does not allow.
Making excuses for their murderous behavior, either blaming the victim or the laws is a lame attempt to divert blame from where it lies - with the three men who beat and killed and burried a boy who did not threaten their safety in any way.
Maybe tolerence isn't the right word, but even if you dispise his actions, taking his life does not fix the problem.
I can't believe anyone could possibly think this kid deserved to be killed.
DUH!
Too bad taxpayers have to pay for there little stint in prison.
You have an intersting take on the case. A boy was murdered by 3 others. The murdered boy was wearing a skirt. You think it was the boy wearing the skirt who was 'hurting' others and warrants your condemnation, not the 3 who beat and murdered a boy who was not threatening their safety. Interesting priorities.
I haven't suggested otherwise.
That it was fatally stupid for a cross-dressing PERVERT to go to a party attended by NON-PERVERTS...
Goes without saying.
YOUNG perverts who desire to eventually become OLD perverts should (among other things) stay under their rocks.
Agreed.
Thanks for trying to totally dismantle, twist, bend, add, subtract, and convolute what I wrote. I never implied other people should "hurt" or "murder" cross-dressers. I think the three should meet "ole sparky" for their henious acts.
I asked you if you think that Ignorance, Pride, and Selfishness should be just fine and tolerated.
Here's an interesting priority: Cross-dressers should be welcome into society with open arms, let's have them baby sit our children, so our children can understand and accept the vitues of this lifestyle...PUKE!!!!!
I do. This is America. You do not need to associate with this person. You personally do not need to accept them, what you need to do is follow the laws and not beat and kill them for crossing your path. Do I think you need to accept people like this into your home or your life, of course not. Do you need to hire one as a baby sitter, no. Those are ridiculous straw men.
I am not personally threatened by a 17 year old by in a skirt and have a hard time understanding why when one is murdered in cold blood, you think not of that but rather of some made-up babysitter that has no connection to this case.
I am glad you agree the murderers should pay.
Yeah... Uh Huh...
I'll get right on that.
Why should anybody mind? What gives anybody the right to kill or even bother somebody they don't like?
You're not thinkin', gal.
What business of yours is it whether another human being is prideful or selfish?
Is this the way you think?
It's the way every rational human being should think. This kid would still be alive if these three jagoffs had just left him alone!
Well, they'll get theirs, soon enough.
This beginners package (have a look for yourself, I'm not positing it here) contains the necessities for dressing and is reasonably priced for the beginner. Included in this complete kit is: Foam triangle breast forms with nipple, gaff, lace bra, matching panties, chest tape for extra cleavage, hip and rear pad (uncovered). Available in four prepackaged sizes--SMALL (bra is 36B), MEDIUM (bra is 38B), LARGE (bra is 40C) and X-LARGE (bra is 42C). Panties and gaffs correspond to the same sizes in small, medium, large, and extra-large (for example, if you order a size medium package, size medium gaff and panties will be sent). Comes in a cloth carrying bag for convenience and storage.
All contents mailed in a descreet package, of course.
I did not make this up...And no, it is not mine!
You may be right about that, but "normal" people don't react to cross dressers by murdering them.
Be careful Archie... I'm told that Psychobabble conventional wisdom has it that you may harbor secret pervert thumping 'issues'...
I guesss we should turn ourselves in for re-education?
Here... Try this little number on Arch... It's a little tight on me...
There you go, give us a little spin!
It does seem that many transvestites/cross dressers have an absent father in the picture. Either he is dead, divorced or just noninvolved. I've wondered why this is. I think it because a single mother is much more likely to indulge (and in some cases even encourage) feminine behavior in their sons. Whereas a typical father is quick to nip in the bud any "girlish" tendencies in his son. Food for thought.
It's not an episode from 'Ozzie & Harriet', that's for sure.
Sounds like a case of a pervert learning that 'poor folks have poor ways'.
What do you plan to do about ignorance, pride and selfishness?
Is physical violence your solution? Why not just leave other people alone? Or do you go around correcting everyone who doesn't measure up to your standards?
You're quite the buttinski for a conservative.
That's called "the real world".
Perhaps the rules are different in sissy boy homo pervert rump ranger towns, I wouldn't know.
If you really think my post suggests "the right to kill or even bother", then you either didn't read it or you are utterly braindead. There are a lot of people around here who would suggest the latter. I used to think they were exaggerating.
This poor sap apparantly though he could go through life with a revolving gender, and nobody would mind.
You sound pretty intolerant yourself there, bud. Intolerance of intolerance is still intolerance, and you said it yourself: "intolerance kills."
Garbage. Don't mistake "homophobic" (we're not afraid of the sissy boys) for "homo-revolted".
Or do you think that one man putting his organ in another man's excretory orifice is "normal"?
If you do, I suggest YOU have a problem.
Murder, no. But in a healthy society, there is a price which will be paid when a homo tries to pass himself off at a hetero party as a girl, and is discovered by normal healthy hetero males.
If you want to change this, you will have to pass a law to castrate all normal men.
OMG, I am really going to have to go out on a limb here! I think of it because it's the ROOT of a much larger problem! Of course, just because someone cross-dresses or even one who engages in acts of perversion on their own does not warrent murder, but do you not realize the effect on society if this was an accepted social practice, which inherently, God forbid, it ever becomes? The word I'm looking for here is DEGENERATION. Murder is just the other problem, yes it is worse in my view, but a degraded society will only pray that it would only have murder to deal with after everyone is so screwed up on what is normal behavior because of the moral decay that has infested us.
Don't think for one second that the evil of murder is any less the evil of the lie, especailly the lie that intrudes upon the guilible minds of our children so they would believe that nothing they do is WRONG, PERVERTED, OR IMMORAL.
No, having male members rammed into your excretory orifice for "fun", thereby welcoming every nasty germ and virus known to science, (AIDS, syphillis to name a few), THAT will kill you.
What're you nuts?
...for chrissakes, don't give 'er any ideas.
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