NEWS REPORT:
“A transgendered prostitute was stabbed to death in the Bronx Saturday by a customer who was apparently surprised by the hooker’s true sex, police sources said Saturday.
The victim – a 25-year-old man who dressed like a woman – was identified by sources as Talib Stewart, who often went by the feminine nicknames of Nesha or Sanesha.
Stewart was stabbed multiple times inside a Belmont apartment building about 6 a.m. Saturday, police said. A 37-year-old man was later arrested inside the second-floor apartment, police said.
Though the suspect’s identity was not immediately released, the sources said he was the prostitute’s john who became enraged when he learned his partner was not a woman.
Stewart, more than 6 feet tall, was known to wear stylish, provocative outfits with towering high heels, neighbors said. Stewart also apparently had undergone surgery to give him larger breasts and other female characteristics, neighbors said.
“She looked like a girl but when she turned around, you knew it was a man,” a 17-year-old neighbor said. “She had a big jaw and an Adam’s apple.”
Neighbors said Stewart was a friendly and flirty presence on the block and was rarely hassled for his appearance.
“She’s always been Nesha to me,” said a friend who just gave her first name, Janelle. “She’s funny and outgoing.”
“It’s a shock – nobody should do something like that,” said another neighbor who asked not to be identified. “She never had any problems here.”
Stewart’s relatives visited the crime scene Saturday afternoon and angrily declined comment. Neighbors said they didn’t know if Stewart was turning tricks but they had noticed frequent male visitors to her home.
The suspect remained in police custody last night as the Bronx district attorney was determining which charges to file, officials said.”
This report was a great shock to me, personally. Boots had originally contacted me from an ad we run in Transformation Magazine and we set her up for a shoot fairly fast and we have worked with her a number of times since.
All I can say, is that reports from Tony was that she was a great model, a nice girl, easy to work with, highly sexed and it’s a great shame that her life was ended so short. She was vivacious in her work and appeared to carry that through to her life.
To be brutally murdered, by a homophobic man, no matter if he knew she was a real girl or a transsexual has to go down as a hate crime. The newspaper reporting this incidence should be cited for continuing to call a transsexual a “he”.
Go in peace, Boots.
She was 25 when she died.
