cityweekly.net – By Stephen Dark
When Juan Lopez found his brother, Javier, hanging from a rope in the backyard shed of the West Valley City house they shared, his brother, he says, “had a huge smile, as if he’d finally found happiness.”
The brother had been dead for four hours, his nails turning black from pooling blood and his head almost separating from his body when Juan found him at about 10 p.m. on March 25, 2003. Hysterical, he cut the 31 year old down and laid him on the ground. The room was full of fabric that Javier – a brother, but also a transgender woman – had used to make dresses.