A quick PSA before we get started. We came back from hiatus just in
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Season might very well be going into November at this point. I am trying
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link tree, and without further ado, here is the next installment of our
Pride series for in the Place where mysteries and the Missing Me We're Conspiracies lurk
around every corner. Welcome to the Deep Dark Truth. This episode contains graphic
or explicit content that may be disturbing, violent, or sexual in nature.
Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back to the Deep Dark Truth. I'm Mom
True and I'm Mikey and today we are going to be discussing missing person Sequoia
Cooper as part of our Pride series, and also having a larger conversation about
how inaccessible information can be when it comes to crime cases in the trans community,
but most especially trans women of color such as Sequoia. We've attempted in
the past to cover other murdered and missing trans people of color and found it
to be extremely difficult, which is still the case. But today we're going
to be trying our best to give you all of the information we've been able
to gather on Sequoia, and also have a conversation about other missing and murder
trans women, especially those that have happened thus far in twenty twenty two.
With that said, Chip, how about you get us started. So.
Sekoia Cooper is a thirty three year old woman born August ninth, nineteen eighty
eight. She was last seen on August thirty first, twenty twenty one,
in Columbus, Ohio, when she left to go to the store to get
water around eleven thirty at night. Her partner, who will talk more about
in a moment, said that she had received a text shortly before she left
but we don't know the contents of that text, whether the police do or
not, at least not available to the public. She's about fifty five one
hundred forty five pounds, brown eyes, dark brown hair in lemonade braids swept
to the side. She was last seen wearing a black and white summer dress
and black and white baby fat sandals. She's got two tattoos, one on
each thigh. One says go get that money ninety being dollar sign and the
other says Sekoia. She was last seen at either the area around Howie Road
and Weldon Avenue, North Columbus, or possibly East Webber Road and Cleveland Avenue
inter Black twenty nine Ford Fusion. We'll get to that in a second.
We think that the East Webber Cleveland Avenue was based on a tip and she
was actually last seen in the North Columbus area. She was seen in her
Ford Fusion, which was recovered later in October with stone license plate or her
original license plate is still out there, so in case this is information that
it's helpful for someone if anyone should find such a license plate or something.
Her original plate is an Ohio plate golf Juliet Papa nine three zero three,
and of course that license plate would now be considered evidence and could possibly lead
to the person that was last seen in her car. Her partner, Richard
Harris, said late last year that Cooper failed to return to her home near
Crimeans Park after she left to buy bottled water at a nearby store. Though
he called herself phone repeatedly, he said it appeared to be turned off and
that it was extremely out of character for her. Her adopted mother, Louianne
Cooper, also contributed to how out of character it was and spoke about how
Sequoia would call her every day before going to work, but she has not
heard from her since her disappearance. He also received tips of sightings and a
nearby gas station, but those tips didn't pan out, and that is the
tip that we believe led to the East Webber and Cleveland Avenue areas hit.
At some point that is unclear, he started receiving text messages with requests for
ransom seven thousand to get her back or five hundred dollars just to speak to
her, which he said he turned over to the Columbus Missing Persons Detectives.
Here's a quote from an article by the Columbus Dispatch police brushed them off like
it was a prank unquote. He also acknowledged that quote there is some sick
people in the world. Another quote from our Blackgirls dot Com, which honestly,
our Blackgirls dot Com had the most information that we were able to find
in one continuous place about Sequoia's disappearance like by far, like not comparable.
They're they're doing a lot of work. It's clear. Quote. I mean,
you see this every day on the TV and on the milk cartons,
but you never really realize the depths of this because there ain't never no closure
until you find something. This is some of the worst shit that you could
possibly go through. Sergeant Scott Leroy of the Missing Person's Unit said, quote,
we believe that this missing person may be the victim of fall play,
and we believe that there is a possibility that someone out there needs that little
bit of umph when you see this family that's suffering, to come forward and
give us the information that we need. Unquote. Sequoia's biological brother, James
Carswell, who resides in Georgia but was in Columbus to help the search effort,
created a gofund me, which Mikey is going to tell you about so
The gofund me mentions that outside help is appreciated, that be contributions, volunteering,
or information. Her family believes that this is not a runaway situation.
In addition to the police suspecting foul play, her brother in this gofund me
post details her dedication to her job as a GM at Popeyees in North Columbus,
as well as her two dogs. The gofund me also set to assist
with taking care of her animals and the search. This post also mentions,
unfortunately, our family has to prepare for the worst. Now that her car
was located last October, forensic evidence is starting to show she was a victim
of foul play. This is the first mention of the forensic evidence that we
saw in our research, aside from the circumstantial conclusions you can draw from her
car being found with a stolen plate. So compared to episodes like our Lauren's
Spear episode for example, or our Gabby Petito episodes, this is pretty much
the end of the amount of information that we have, and we've been recording
for less than ten minutes. Yeah, and the thing is, this is
so much more information than we could find on any other missing or murdered trans
women of color. This is like blowing them out of the water. Yeah,
it's just the most depressing because we've tried to make this this episode many
times. But before we kind of move on to that discussion portion and talk
a little bit more about not only this case, but other cases we've tried
to cover other missing and murdered trans women of color, we do want to
say that the Columbus Division of Police can be reached at six one four six
four five four five four five, the Columbus Missing Person's Unit can be reached
at six one four six four five two three five eight, and the agency
case number is two one zero six five nine one four three. So I
found really weird about this case is that she was so known and so interactive.
She was well known and had family and had friends and hand coal workers,
and nobody knows or saw anything. Yeah. Actually, the reason that
I found out about this to begin with, I think it was Columbus Pride
had posted basically that she hadn't been found yet, trying to raise awareness,
and I was like, Okay, I haven't heard of her. Let's just
try again. Let's just try. We have so many docs that exist just
for if we find new information or new information comes out on a case,
episodes that can't be episodes yet because not only a lot of times is there
are not enough information. But I don't want to personally contribute I know neither
of you do either to misinformation. So sometimes all there is is rumors and
nothing's been substantiated, And I don't feel comfortable if there's not at least two
sources saying relatively the same thing. I don't feel comfortable putting any of that
out into the world because what happens is that when people do hopefully take an
interest in the case and start asking questions and start raising awareness, they're raising
awareness and looking in the wrong places, and they're directing other people to look
in the wrong places, and it just ends up not being helpful at all.
I also think it's interesting to mention that Sequoia went missing about a week
ish before Gabby Petito went missing. It might have been two weeks, but
it was relatively in the same time period, two weeks, I think,
which obviously we're glad that Gabby's body was able to be recovered and that her
family was able to find out what happened to her. This isn't to say
that we don't want all missing or murdered people to be able to be brought
to justice. In a weird way, van life itself has become such a
big thing in the last five years. Also the domestic violence, where there
was an actual person that people could look at and say we think that they
did it. That gets people more in an uproar, And those two things
together I think helped push Gabby's case to the forefront because it's like, here
are these here's this niche thing that is like instagram worthy, and even a
lot of the articles they would say like rising Instagram star. I mean,
they had a decent amount of followers, but not really that many before Nushi
was missing and people started following to look at every detail of their Instagram,
look at every single account that they had across different social media like dirt and
other things. Yeah, it's sad that, like you have to have a
hook to get your case out there. Supporting and protecting trends and people of
color is niche and is cool. It is instagram worthy, and that's the
thing. But there's no equality done behind the scenes. There's no type of
investigation and time spent and leads followed up and phone calls made. And it's
also interesting in that this case with Cequoia, it looks like it's probably not
trans motivated. It's probably it doesn't seem like it's like right, that's sort
of it's not a hate crime. It's just a regular murder or regular kidnapping,
which is also speaks to the fact that we have more information than we
normally do. It wasn't just attack we know was a theft well yeah and
found so yeah, and so that obviously we can't know exactly their motivations,
but thus far, with the information that we know, it feels like the
motivation was that or or carjacking or robbery or wrong place, wrong time type
of situation as opposed to just walked out of the queer bar or all of
the above it and rape and murder too. Oh yeah, I mean it
could be yeah, And that's why it's sad that we don't know. More
so, in regards to news coverage and coverage that we've tried to find,
I do want to talk a little bit about an article the Advocate released,
and that this article is actually I think a month and a half old Ish
by Trudy King, and literally the title of the article was just here are
the Transamericans killed in twenty twenty two so far. So it mentions that at
least fifty seven trans people died last year as the result of violence, some
of them were domestic violent situations. But also that is a sort of the
black what do they call it, the black board of crime statistics? Is
it probably is a lot more than that, but those are the only ones
that got reported to the police the way that they got categorized. Yeah,
so at least fifty seven trans people died last year as a victim in some
type of violent crime. And of course there's many other missing trans people that
we don't know their status of. And also these are the ones that died
as a result of this specific type of violence. Some people might not be
out. There's all types of things that can excuse statistics, but I just
want to talk about some examples. Amari Liege, twenty one, died in
Pittsburgh on January first, kicked off the year she was shot. She was
one of a half dozen trans people of color that died in that very specific
area in the last year, and that's that's almost word for word wreckt quote
from The Advocate While Princess she was found shot in Florida. Matthew Spanponado,
a twenty one year old transmant, was hit and killed in a hit and
run car crash. Naomi Skinner was fatally shot in Highland Park, Michigan.
Her boyfriend was charged with second degree murder. There are some that are immediately
there is a suspect, they are domestic, and therefore they move relatively quickly.
But that is not the typical case. But in some cases that's why
you don't hear about them. Cyprus Ramos, twenty one, was found dead
in Lubbock, Texas, and a storage unit. Paloma Vasquez was found shot
to death in Houston, Tatiana LaBelle was found dead March eighteenth. She was
put into a trash can after being beaten to death in Chicago. Catherine new
House was fatally shot by her own father in Georgia. Kesha Webster was found
dead in Jackson, Mississippi. Mia Love Parker was found shot in Chester,
Pennsylvania. Fern Feather was found stabbed to death in Morristown, Vermont. Ariana
Mitchell was found shot to death at a party in Hampton, Virginia. Ray
Muscat was found shot to death in Oakland County, Michigan. Nidra Sequence Morris
was found dead in Opaalaca, Florida. Shenalika Yella Dior Hemingway was murdered in
Albany, and the police have not disclosed the manner of death. Those are
just one liners about trans people that have been murdered this year, and in
most of the cases there is one or two lines about who they were as
a person, And the only reason that we're not including them is because just
quoting two sentences for for each of them would just be us reading you this
article, which we of course have linked in our sources. So in that
case, we have even a trusted news source such as The Advocate, which
is the biggest news source concerning lgbtqia A plus people, and even they don't
have enough information to do more than a paragraph. In a lot of these
cases, with their press badges, their resources, their sources, they're staffing
even spaces that are supposed to be quote unquote gay friendly or quote unquote lesbian
friendly, that does not mean that they're trans friendly. Yeah, yea.
Even within our own communities, our own spaces. It is the job of
everyone in that community, no matter what their descriptor orientation or gender is,
to be advocating not only for inclusion, but also the fact that there isn't
the amount of inclusion that there should be is part of the reason we're not
hearing these stories. You would think that other queer people would want to read
and raise awareness and rise up in the face of people being murdered and going
missing that are within that community. But there is such a disconnect for a
lot of reasons. But one of the reasons, in my opinion, is
that once gay marriage was legalized, some people just felt like, I don't
want to fight anymore. I don't want to be fighting for anything anymore.
I want to be done. I fought for this thing for decades of my
life. Before that, I was fighting awareness for AIDS because people were dying
for that. I was just fighting to live. And so it's like,
I want to be done now. I don't want to And that's just really
it's not an excuse because trans women of color were at the forefront. Yeah,
it's it's completely it's completely backwards, and that the t made it made
it a safe country for the L and the G and G have no interest
now when it's the most needed for the T to be safe. And even
the B that they completely don't treat equally and that they disinclude when they're preaching
inclusion. It's so backwards. I don't understand it, the inclusion aspect.
It feels this is just my perspective, and Chip can talk about his perspective.
It's clicky as far, and that's really the only way to describe it.
It's almost like creating its own hierarchy. The sense of pride makes you
feel loved and included and whatever. We're all one, we're all the same.
And people argue, well, orientation is different than gender, and it's
like, yeah, you can say that now. But with our modern descriptors
and how we label things and how far psychology has come, and what we
understand about trans people and intersects people and blah blah blah, but nobody cared
during the Stonewall riot if the people that were fighting were trans, Like,
you can't say that. People that were pillars of a community and our entire
community is owed to them. The backbreaking work done by the transforming a color
in the beginning and now, yeah, should be discluded because your thing isn't
exactly like my thing. They're they're not quite the same enough, like no
bullshit, And there's a sort of like divide in the queer community where you've
got there's a lot of assimilationist idea, like your classical as it were,
whites, this gay man, wait, yes, this lesbian are looking I'm
just like one of you straight people. Just let me be a straight person,
but don't stop being mean. Whereas you've got the rest of the community
where it's like, no, we're not just like that. Let's be radical
and accept who we actually are and not just to play by their rules.
I think that that's like an old school form of activism. That's what it
was. It was like, wait, we're just like you because we want
to get married, because we want to adopt children. But the community in
and of itself, just by being part of it, it makes you differ.
You are different. The inclusionary way that they wanted to look at it,
it was trying to be like, we're not that different, versus accepting
the things that are, when in reality, the LGBT community is overwhelmingly not
that are not families that have children. They're polyamorous, they're monogamous, they're
open, They're the overwhelming majority are not that nuclear family. The asexuals and
the romantics are also getting the assimilation never made sense. The thing you have
to remember, though, too, is that the largest percentage of the community
are by women, and that is where the statistics kind of gets skewed.
But you don't think of by women when you think of the community, because
it's not the face of the community. It's not the representation of the community.
It's not me. It has a voice. Two gay guy, Yeah,
yeah, and they're they're one of the minority completely gay men. Book
that Stonewall movie where they like invented a gay man. Yeah you know why
I did that? Yeah? No, absolutely one. Yeah, it is
weird. In the Gallop News consensus or whatever, this year, seven point
one percent of America identifies as LGBT. So Forbes says that in twenty twenty
one, three hundred and seventy five transgender people were killed. It does not
specify all of the different ways, but one in four of those murdered were
killed in their own home, so by someone they know or by someone that
specifically targeted them knowing where they live. Nine tenths of those, ninety six
percent were trans women specifically, ye half of those a little over half of
those were murdered sex workers. Yeah, there's another community that gets start under
us. Oh my god, and most of them, but it does not
site the statistic were black or migrant transwomen of color, so horrifying statistics that
isn't And there's conversations happening, But those conversations are a lot like this conversation
we're having now. It's an overarching this is what's happening in this community.
Wow, this is awful. Instead of these are the very specific places where
there's not a much groundwork laid in these cases, where police departments aren't doing
enough, or people are specifically being targeted for hate crimes in these general areas,
and these conversations are happening, you know, exactly like this in this
tiny, little queer community, the three of us talking on our podcast,
not on any sort of national level or state level or anything. You know,
if Gabby Petito hadn't happened at the same time as Sekoia Cooper, Sakoia
Cooper's story still not would have picked up any real hype, you know,
maybe it could have. I would like it if it had. That's allusible,
but realistically, statistically, and again I just have to call back to
what Chips said. It's very interesting that she wasn't abducted or taken or killed
or anything at a place that was especially queer or especially making her a target.
It's not overtly a hate crime. Do you think that would have affected
them any more information coming forward though, I think it would have, but
it would have been from queer people that were outside that bar smoking, or
queer people that were going to or from the bar. It would have been
tips from within the community. I don't think it would have been tips from
neighbors. I think it could have affected because more people would have been around
in a congested space to potentially see someone. But even then, how many
were murdered in their homes. This conversation has definitely devolved, But the problem
is that there's so much nuance because there's people outside of the community. How
publicity gets cases more attention versus what's happening inside the community, and why cases
aren't getting that much attention even though they should be getting the attention. Everything
would make you think, here all these people talk about the homosexual agenda.
You'd think that we're a forg hive mind, that we all have singular purposes,
that we're all have the same goals. But that's just not how it
is. We can't even all get behind to share an Advocate post about a
missing transwoman. Why is that? I don't want to be scared of going
back down the ladder of society, and therefore I'm choosing not to involve myself
actively, and in the case of some allies, I think it's just willful
ignorance. Period. You have to imagine, you know, me on Facebook
and being really connected in the queer community here and then getting posts in the
Advocate and speaking out the way that it did in multiple posts. Do you
want to be friends? I've lost from that, not friends, not friends
zero, not friends first and foremost. But that's but that's it. It's
some of that is that fear, and that's coming from inside our own community,
Like how dare you speak up against a gay camp not allowing trans people
in their camp? Like how we could be here another three hours. We're
not going to be here another three hours. But we did want to put
together something we felt really responsible and highlighting some of these cases and kind of
explaining why we're not covering them until next time. This has been the deep dark truth