On Thursday, police arrested and jailed 22-year-old Ruben Alvarado in the murder of Chynal Lindsey, a 26-year-old transgender woman whose body was found in Dallas on June 1. He remains in county jail on a $500,000 bond.
Lindsey’s body, which showed signs of homicidal violence, was pulled out of White Rock Lake after a passerby spotted it in the water and called 911.
Transgender women, especially women of color, are at much higher risk of violence compared to the rest of the population, researchers say. Lindsey was the third transgender woman to be killed in Dallas since October 2018. Her murder came only two weeks after the death of Muhlaysia Booker, 23, another Black trans woman in Dallas, who first made headlines after being attacked in a parking lot in April.
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After Booker’s death, authorities began investigating whether the homicide was connected with two other attacks against trans women of color. Brittany White, 29, was fatally shot last October in southeast Dallas, and an unnamed 26-year-old woman was stabbed in March; she survived the assault.
Police arrested suspect Kendrell Lavar Lyles — who reportedly knew both Booker and Lindsey — for Booker’s murder on June 12. Lyles, who faces two additional murder charges for the deaths of Leticia Grant and Kenneth Cichocki, is being held without bond at Collin County Jail in McKinney, TX.
Lindsey's cousin, Tamaya Lindsey, told NBC 5 that she will be at all of Alvarado’s court appearances. "I just want to know, how did you feel...after you realized that you took another human being's life?" she asked. "Or do you just feel bad now because you're caught and you're trying to figure out how to get out of it, which you're not."