PioneerLocal.com – Matt Kiefer
Slaying raises awareness of violence in transgender community
Life never stood still for Krystal Heskin.
At 31 years old, she didn’t have a steady job or a place to stay. She picked up and moved constantly, carrying no more luggage than she could fit into her Kia Spectra. She lived with family members on and off, but she also looked to friends when she needed somewhere to stay.
A free spirit, Heskin lived life in the moment, her family said.
In February, two months before she was killed, she came to Elk Grove Village, checking into a $40-a-night Motel 6 along Route 83.
Room 319 transformed into her home, where she hung out and played video games on her X-Box with friends, some of them transgender like she was.
She walked her dog, Pooh Bear, a chow mix, in the neighborhood — a trucker’s haven of industrial warehouses and diners tucked around the Interstate 90 overpass leading to O’Hare Airport.
She ate at those restaurants and shot pool at the dance club on Higgins Road. Once, she got picked up by the police on marijuana charges. Some nights, she would just stay in and hang out with friends in Room 319.
Heskin lived her life on her own terms, but it’s her death — why she was bludgeoned on the head repeatedly with a hammer — that is still something of a mystery.
To the transgender community, however, it’s not a mystery. Her death is just another piece of an unsettling pattern. It’s a trend of violence against transgender people that is largely ignored by America, advocates say, just as the transgender population as a whole is ignored.
On Tuesday, the man accused of murdering Heskin heads to court to pursue his not-guilty plea. Throughout the trial, Heskin’s family will be sitting in the back of the courtroom with pictures of her in hand. Meanwhile, transgender advocates will try to put a face to the statistics and change the national mindset.