Content Warning: This case contains topics about LQBTQIA2+ violence and hate. Transgender violence and hatred and Children.
Santa Muerte, please intercede Amen.
This case is solved, and the killer is held accountable. However, Kuhnhausen has inspired a movement I hope will sweep the Nation.
"I just want to say thank you to everybody for loving my baby and for bringing her murderer to justice," Nikki's mother, Lisa Woods, said in a video posted to the Justice for Nikki group's Facebook page. "I am eternally grateful for all of you."
https://people.com/crime/washington-man-convicted-murdering-transgender-teen-after-date-case-inspired-mom-to-create-change/
June 6, 2019, 5:00 AM
Kuhnhausen goes missing at seventeen years old from Vancouver, Washington. Kuhnhausen left her apartment early in the morning after snap chatting with someone and planned to meet.
One person was with Kuhnhausen that night, David Bogdanov, twenty-five years old and working in a family-owned construction business. Bogdanov had exchanged Snapchat messages with Kuhnhausen, and they had met online only a few hours before the meeting.
All of Kuhnsausen's social media accounts went silent.
June 6-7, 2019 (Estimated)
Lisa Wood, the mother of Kuhnhausen, filed a missing person report because she felt in her heart that something had happened to her daughter. Kuhnhausen's friends were not worried at first, however.
The police interviewed Kuhnhausen's friend soon after the report was filed and learned of the Snapchat meeting.
June 2019 (Estimated)
Flyers were made and distributed looking for Kuhnsausen.
"I remember there were flyers everywhere. You couldn't go to the grocery store without seeing that flyer," said Clark County prosecutor Kristen Arnaud.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nikki-kuhnhausen-david-bogdanov-transgender-teens-murder-new-law/
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children posted her profile on their site more than two weeks after she vanished.
Police attempted to locate and interview Bogdanov two weeks after the vanishing. They called, went to his home, made cards, and even tried to Snapchat him.
November 2019 (Estimated)
Bogdanov contacts the police and tells them he had phone problems and just now got their messages.
October 2, 2019
Bogdanov interviews with Detective David Jensen of the Vancouver Police Department. The meeting was in person, recorded, and it was voluntary.
Bogdanov told Jensen he was drinking with his brothers on June 6 around 3 AM. Then he spots Nikki alone on the street and checks on her.
Bogdanov offered her a jacket and a drink of vodka to relax. Bogdanov gave her a bottle, his contact information, and his Snapchat name. However, she didn't have her phone with her, so they parted ways for a bit until Nikki texted him her friend's address. Bogdanov picked her up, citing that he would help her find her phone. Eventually, they are alone in his car, talking in the driveway.
Nikki disclosed that she was transgender to him, and Bogdanov said he responded severely.
"I was shocked to find that out. And just uncomfortable and really, really disturbed. And I asked her to please get out of the car, 'cause this is just really weird for me. … She just got out of the car and I took off."
The actual disturbing part of the interview was Bogdanov making sure the detective was aware that he was disgusted by anyone in the LGBTQIA community.
"For me it's even disturbing when I'm around like a gay person or somebody bi or transsexual or something else. … I just got disgusted and I asked her to just get out."
Bogdanov ends the interview with this unprompted statement.
"I wish I could help you more, but I — I — I don't know. I'm not the kind of person to — I'm not even a violent person, you know, nothing."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nikki-kuhnhausen-david-bogdanov-transgender-teens-murder-new-law/
December 7, 2019
A male hiker discovers human remains on a remote road on Larch Mountain in Vancouver, Washington. The man had found a skull, and authorities rushed to the scene.
Det. Joe Swenson also went out and said that they found items right away along the thick tree line. The human remains and objects had been scattered by wildlife down the ravine.
Many items were recovered, including a green/yellow rainjacket, underwear, several sets of rings, and a bandana. These items were matched to Kuhnhausen via photographs.
The murder weapon lay next to her as well. It was an all-black charging cord with bits of Nikki's multi-colored artificial hair stuck in it because it had been tied in a knot, making a circle about 4 inches in diameter.
It took two days to recover all items at the scene, and detectives were sure someone had been murdered at the end of their search. So they matched her things to her social media posts. Then later, when dental records came back, it confirmed that Nikki Kuhnhausen had been found.
The cause of her death was strangulation.
The police interviewed Bogdanov again, but this time they could pin his location to that mountain road with cellphone records.
Bogdanov was arrested and charged with murder in the second degree and malicious harassment. This is considered a hate crime.
August 2021 (Friday)
Bogdanov pleaded not guilty because of self-defense. In his story, he says she reached for his gun after he rejected her for being transgender. Bogdanov said that if his family knew about this contact, he would be humiliated.
Miss Kuhnhausen, a child, was being blamed for Bogdanov's violent actions against her.
Bogdanov was found guilty at 27 years old; later, his sentence was a maximum of nineteen-and-a-half years in prison.
One of the probable cause statements said that Bogdanov "became enraged." after having sexual contact with Kuhnhausen and found out she was transgender.
Activists, along with Kuhnhausen's mother with Justice for Nikki Task Force, worked to create "Nikki's law" in response to this case and passed it with comprehensive support. It bans using panic over someone's gender as an excuse for violence against that person. This defense has several nicknames, including "gay panic defense,"
Nikki Kuhnhausen
Nikki Kuhnhausen was born to her Mother, Lisa Woods, on July 6, 2001. The two were very close and spoke with each other daily, right before Woods's work shift. The only time they didn't was the day she was murdered. Woods had divorced Kuhnhausen's father before her teen years.
Nikki was transgender and did not struggle with identity. Instead, Nikki knew who she was from a very young age. It took Nikki some time to transition, but the large family she came from knew, understood, and accepted her the entire time.
Kuhnhausen did have challenges in life that worried her mother. It began with missing school and then soon a substance use disorder. Woods had tried to get her daughter help with treatments like rehab, but nothing seemed to help. Then, one day in 2018, after a drug deal went wrong, Kuhnhausen was shot six times and survived. Woods hoped this would be the miracle that changed Kuhnhausen's path in life.
Kuhnhausen is described as lively, cheerful, and caring by one of her friends Arielle Fox. Others described her as bright with lots of confidence. Nikki often would get into trouble at school, but only to defend someone else. That was the type of soul that she was! The kind of person that fought for the underdog.
"I want her just remembered as Nikki," said friend Taylor Watts. "Loving, caring, sweet, happy, funny … she'd make all of you laugh." https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/nikki-kuhnhausen-murder-case/22/
Nikki Enjoyed doing makeup and styling and hoped one day she could do this for Niki Minaj. Nikki also enjoyed using social media and was on Tiktok, often lipsyncing to Nikki Minaj. Other dreams included competing on America's Next Top Model.
"knew exactly who she wanted to be and who she was," Taylor Watts, a longtime friend of Nikki's, told PEOPLE last year. "She inspired a lot of people to actually feel free to come out as who they want to be."
https://people.com/crime/washington-man-convicted-murdering-transgender-teen-after-date-case-inspired-mom-to-create-change/
Conclusion
Kuhnhausen's mother hoped her daughter would return but felt like something terrible had happened to her. The first day she had this feeling, she took her daughter's sweatshirt and made it into a pillow so she could be near her. Woods slept with that pillow, a picture of her daughter, and a bible.
"When trans people go missing, they're usually found deceased." said activist Devon Davis Williamson, co-founder of the Justice for Nikki Task Force.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/nikki-kuhnhausen-murder-case/9/
This world might have lost a beautiful light like Nikki Kuhnhausen, but we need to share her story in remembrance and we need pass “Nikki’s Law” everywhere.
Sources
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/nikki-kuhnhausen-murder-case/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nikki-kuhnhausen-david-bogdanov-transgender-teens-murder-new-law/
https://people.com/crime/washington-man-convicted-murdering-transgender-teen-after-date-case-inspired-mom-to-create-change/
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