Police Interview Persons of Interest in Death of Black Trans Woman Shandon Floyd

Shandon Floyd, a 20-year-old Black transgender woman, was found dead in a car in Columbia, S.C., on November 14, six days after she was reported missing.

Richland County sheriff’s deputies haven’t classified her death as a homicide, and an initial investigation showed no obvious signs of foul play, but they have identified three persons of interest, TV station WIS reports. They haven’t said if this changes the classification of the case, but they did say there are no charges pending, at least not yet.

Officials also haven’t said how she died. The Richland County Coroner’s Office has ordered an autopsy, but the results haven’t been released.

Floyd lived in Mullins, S.C., and was visiting Columbia, family members told TV station WACH and other local media. The day she disappeared, November 8, she was hanging out with friends at a hotel. About 3 a.m., she asked to use one friend’s car to take a man to a store. She didn’t return, and the owner of the car reported her missing, saying he started to worry when his calls to her phone went straight to voice mail.

Floyd’s family has accused Richland County authorities of moving slowly on the case because she was trans.

She was a 2021 graduate of Mullins High School and was studying nursing at Newberry College, according to an online obituary (which misgenders her).

“Shandon was a very fun person, life of the party, kindhearted, would give you the shirt off her back,” Mason Powell, a close friend, told local CBS affiliate WLTX. “When I met her, she was like a light. She was definitely the friend to get to know and the person to be around if you want to have a great time. And, you know, she loved her family and her brothers. She definitely loved them.”

If her death turns out to be a homicide, she would be one of at least 29 trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people to have died by violence in the U.S. this year. The majority have been Black trans women. In any given year, there are undoubtedly many more victims who are misgendered or deadnamed by police or media, or whose deaths are not reported at all.