Police in Texas are investigating the murder of a transgender woman that ranks as the 13th in the US this year, a death toll that renders 2015 one of the most deadly, violent years for transgender people in recent times.



The body of Shade Schuler, 22, was discovered dumped in a field off Riverside Drive in Dallas in the north-eastern part of the city on 29 July so decomposed that it took police two weeks to identify her. The Dallas police department continues on its website to misidentify Schuler as a male when she was, as the Guardian has confirmed with her friends in Dallas, an African American transgender woman.

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Her death pushes the total of transgender murders this year above the 12 at least who died in 2014, a year which the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs described as “tumultuous” and in which the Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox declared a “state of emergency”. With four months of the year left, it underlines the morbid danger faced by young black trans women struggling with the combined impact of discrimination, prejudice and minimal help from public and health services.

Of the at least 13 trans women who have been killed this year, 11 were African American.

Schuler’s murder has spread fear across the trans community. “Stop fucking killing us,” one person commented on Facebook. Another said: “This is just so crazy it seems like you cant go one week without finding out another Sister was murdered.”

Nell Gaither, president of the Dallas-based transgender rights group Trans Pride Initiative, said Schuler’s death had shaken everybody in the community. Gaither predicted the murder would make people “a lot more vigilant about their situation and environment, a lot more careful about violent situations they may face. Several people have said to me that this has given a different feel to living in the city”.

The sense of a crisis has been heightened by the fact that Schuler is the fourth trans woman in the US to be found murdered in the past three weeks. India Clarke was found beaten to death in Tampa, Florida, on 21 July; two days later KC Haggard was stabbed in the street by an individual in a car in Fresno, California; and on 8 August Amber Monroe was shot dead in Detroit, Michigan.

Chaaz Quigley, Schuler’s cousin who is an LGBT activist in Dallas, said: “I never thought this would happen to anybody connected to me in the family.”

Quigley added that he doubted the Dallas police department would investigate his cousin’s murder thoroughly. “Unless they have a strong lead, it’s not going to be investigated – it’s going to be thrown under the table just because of who Schuler is.”

On Monday Monica Roberts, a transgender activist from Houston, set up a petition on the White House website calling for a federal investigation into the spate of violence against trans women of color. “Please take action to ensure this community does not have to live in fear of losing their lives to hate and violence,” it says.