The body of a black transgender woman pulled from White Rock Lake in northeast Dallas on Saturday evening "showed obvious signs of homicidal violence," the Dallas police chief said.
The victim, identified as Chynal Lindsey, 26, is the second black transgender woman to be found dead in Dallas in less than a month.
“We are concerned," Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall told reporters at a news conference Monday. "We are actively and aggressively investigating this case and we have reached out to our federal partners to assist us in these efforts.”
Police released photos of Lindsey, who was also known as Jason Haslett, "as a female and as her born gender" at her family's request, Hall said. Normally, the department would not do so, she said.
Lindsey is at least the sixth black transgender woman who has been killed nationwide in 2019, according to the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group.
Less than two weeks ago, Dallas police announced they were investigating if the shooting deaths of two transgender women and the stabbing of a third, who survived, are connected. In those incidents, two of the victims had been in a similar part of Dallas, and all three either got into a car with someone or allowed someone into their car before the attacks.
Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found shot to death May 18. Police have not identified a suspect in her slaying.
Booker's death came little more than a month after she survived a brutal beating in Dallas following a minor traffic accident that was captured on cellphone video and went viral. Edward Thomas, 29, was charged with assault in the April beating. He is not being held in jail, and police have said there is no evidence connecting him with Booker's killing.
On May 21, police said that Booker's slaying was one of those that bore similarities to recent attacks on transgender women in Dallas.
"These cases, although not directly related at this time, do have some similarities the public needs to be aware of," Maj. Vincent Weddington told reporters at a news conference that day.
Weddington said police were working with federal law enforcement officers to determine if any of the attacks should be considered hate crimes.
In October 2018, a transgender woman was found shot to death in a vehicle parked in southeast Dallas, police said.
In April, a woman survived after she was repeatedly stabbed in south Dallas. She provided information about her attacker, but police have not released a detailed description of the man.
