In a surprise development, the medical examiner discovered that the victim of yesterday’s fatal shooting in Maplewood was a post-operative transgender female having undergone sex reassignment surgery. No word at this time as to whether this fact played a role in the murder, but we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.

Here’s the advisory from the County Prosecutor’s office:

Sept. 13, 2010
Newark – On Sunday, Sept. 12 at approximately 5 a.m. Victoria Carmen White, 28, of Newark was fatally shot at a private residence located at 159 Jacoby Street in Maplewood. Information released immediately following the shooting identified the victim as James White.

The victim’s legal name is Victoria Carmen White. Following an examination by the Medical Examiner and further investigation, it has been confirmed that the victim was a post-operative transgender female having undergone sex reassignment surgery. The victim’s birth certificate was legally changed to identify her as Victoria Carmen White.

The case is under active investigation. No other information is currently available.

5 replies on “Maplewood Murder Victim Was a Transgender Female”

  4. This is all very sad.

    Sad enough that this woman was murdered, even sadder that having gone through all the surgical & legal requirements to attain legal recognition as a female, the media not only sensationalise her trans status [which may have well have no relevance to why she was murdered if it took a medical examiner’s autopsy to discover it], in it’s ignorance, the media also dishonour/disrespect her by publishing her former name… which was neither her legal name at the of her death or in any way relevant to her murder. To a transperson, such unnessesary & irrelevant reporting is like spitting on her grave. Shame on the media.

    It’s also a sad example of the general social ignorance in regard to transpeople that there are still people out there who think that the term “Sex reassignment surgery” is ‘a new one’… there is nothing new about the term SRS [sex reassignment surgey], and in fact, it has been around for so long that it is almost out of date – the current ‘preffered’ terminologies now being used are gender reassignment surgery or gender affirmation surgery.

    Thank God I live in Aotearoa [NZ] where people have a much higher level of trans – awareness, and where even the media are slowly getting the message about ‘respectfully responsible reporting’.

  5. First of all, sex reassignment is not “a new one”. People have been surgically changing their gender for 60+ years. Second, if Victoria had had her birth certificate changed and it took a medical examiner to discover that she was transgender, how the hell could the newspaper possibly misidentify her as James? This was a beautiful woman whose life was ended prematurely, plain and simple. Why not focus on the why and who of the murderer rather than sensationalizing her history.

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