Gwen Amber Rose Araujo

She was killed by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled
her after discovering she was transsexual.wo of the defendants were convicted of second-degree
murder, but not convicted on the requested hate crime enhancements. The other two defendants pleaded
guilty or no contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a trans panic defense
- an extension of the gay panic defense - was employed.

Araujo, who was going by the name "Lida" at the time,met Michael Magidson, Jose Merel, Jaron Nabors,
and Jason Cazares in the summer of 2002.On 3 October 2002, she attended a party at a house rented by
Merel and his brother, Paul Merel.Also in attendance at the party were Magidson, Jose Merel, Nabors,
Cazares, Paul Merel, Paul Merel's girlfriend Nicole Brown, and Emmanual Merel.
At the party on 3 October 2002 she was discovered, by forced inspection (conducted by Brown), that
she had male genitalia, following which the men with whom she had had sexual relations became
extremely agitated. Magidson put her in a chokehold.Later, he punched her in the face and began to
choke her, but was pulled off by others.
At some point after that, Paul Merel, Emmanuel Merel, and Brown left the apartment.ose Merel struck
her in the head with a can of food and a frying pan.Nabors and Cazares left in Magidson's truck to
go to Cazares's house to get shovels and a pickax.

When Nabors and Cazares returned, Gwen was still conscious and sitting on the couch.At some point,
the assault resumed. Magidson kneed her in the head against the living room wall, rendering her
unconscious.Cazares kicked her.After this, Araujo was taken to the garage of the home. Nabors
testified that Magidson strangled her with a rope and that Cazares struck her with a shovel,but
Magidson testified that it was Nabors who strangled Gwen and struck her with the shovel,and Cazares
testified that he never struck her and did not see Gwen die.Most accounts have Merel cleaning blood
out of the carpet at the time that she was strangled.Araujo was then hog-tied, wrapped in a blanket,
and placed in the bed of a pick-up truck. They then drove Gwen Araujo's body four hours away and
buried her near the Sierra Nevada mountains.Gwen Araujo's disappearance and murder went unreported
for days.It is not clear at what point during this sequence of events Araujo's death occurred.
However, the autopsy showed that she died from strangulation associated with blunt force trauma to
the head.

At Araujo's mother's request, a judge posthumously changed Araujo's legal name from Eddie to Gwen on
23 June 2004.