A 17-year-old transgender teen from Theodore was found dead in George County Mississippi in early June and her accused murderer is being held on a $1 million bond. Now, the entire world knows about the case, thanks to Caitlyn Jenner, who mentioned the teen in her speech at the ESPY awards Wednesday night.

The speech read: (watch the whole speech here)

"Just last month, the body of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson, a transgender young woman of color was found in a field in Mississippi stabbed to death. I also want to tell you about Sam Taub, a 15-year-old transgender young man from Bloomfield, Michigan. In early April, Sam took his own life. Now, Sam's story haunts me in particular because his death was a few days before ABC aired my interview with Diane Sawyer. Every time something like this happens, people wonder, "Could it have been different, if spotlighting this issue with more attention could have changed the way things happen?" We'll never know," Jenner said on stage.

Williamson was originally mis-gendered by law enforement, leading many to refer to her as her given male name. Mississippi does not include gender identity under its laws for hate crimes.

According to Osman Ahmed, research and education coordinator at the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, the issue happens often.

"We see a lot of mis-gendering of women when homicides happen, and only recently have we seen this trend get better," he told AL.com recently.