Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow
Age 28 (born 20 Jan 1988)1 Jan 2017
Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA)
Stabbed
TDoR list ref: tgeu/1-Jan-2017/Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow
Jamie Lee was a two-spirit trans woman. She was found dead at home and her death is being treated as homicide.
Police in Sioux Falls are investigating the homicide of Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, a 28-year-old two-spirit transgender woman, KSFY reports.
Wounded Arrow was found after a neighbor smelled a "strong odor" coming from her apartment Friday night, according to KSFY. Officers discovered her body there.
On Sunday, KSFY reported that police had a suspect, 25-year-old Joshua Rayvon LeClaire, in custody.
After her death, friends and loved ones shared messages about Wounded Arrow on Facebook.
According to Tamara Jeanne, the president of TransAction South Dakota, Wounded Arrow's death is the first reported transgender homicide in South Dakota. Jeanne said Wounded Arrow's death hit her pretty hard, as Wounded Arrow was in talks to join TransAction South Dakota to conduct outreach to First Nation transgender people. According to the page Sioux Falls Two-Spirit and Allies, Wounded Arrow was originally from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and belonged to the Oglala Lakota tribe.
"Our hearts are broken as we will miss her very much. So again, prayers are needed. Pilamaye," the post reads.
Joshua Rayvon LeClaire, 27, was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder. In June 2018 he was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
When the investigators dug deeper into the life of Jamie Wounded Arrow, especially around the time of her murder, they found a person of interest — Joshua Rayvon LeClaire. Joshua and Jamie reportedly met each other at a Sioux Falls halfway house, after which they remained in contact. Upon looking at the security camera footage, the police noticed Jamie entering her apartment building around 8:30 pm on New Year’s Eve of 2016. Several hours later, around 3:30 am in the morning of January 1, 2017, Joshua was seen making his way into her building as well, wearing a black hoodie, white shorts, and white tennis shoes. He walked past Jamie’s apartment door. He then proceeded to walk around outside the building and tapped on her window to enter her house.
Over an hour later, around 4:40 am, Joshua left the apartment wearing the same hoodie but different pants and shoes, with another pair of shoes in his hands. During his stay, Joshua reportedly stabbed Jamie to death for reasons yet to be uncovered. In the footage, he could be seen throwing a few items into a wooded area near Jamie’s apartment, including a pair of shoes and Jamie’s wallet, both of which were covered in snow by the time the authorities got their hands on them. Reportedly, Joshua even got rid of the bloodied black hoodie in a nearby construction zone, which was also retrieved by the police. Upon testing Jamie’s body along with these recovered items, they found Joshua’s blood on Jamie and on the bloodied hoodie.
With enough incriminating evidence at their disposal, the police arrested the 27-year-old suspect, who was found at a laundromat, a couple of days after the murder. After looking into Joshua’s lengthy rap sheet, they learned that he had already served time in prison for burglary as well as simple assault. During the interview with the investigators, Joshua claimed that he was intoxicated on the night of Jamie’s murder and had blacked out for several hours, only to wake up in the morning at Meldrum Park with a cut to his hand, which was evident at the time of the interrogation.
When asked how Joshua got the cut, he alleged that Jamie struck him first when he denied her sexual advances. But one of the detectives said with experience that the cut was not of defense. Talking about the prospect of it being a hate crime, the lead detective of the case stated, “I know there’s a lot of concerns that this was a hate crime. Nothing that we’ve seen in our investigation looking at social media or the contacts confirms that for us in this point of time.”
In January 2018, over a year after Jamie’s untimely demise, Joshua Rayvon LeClaire pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the case of the transgender woman. In June of the same year, he was sentenced to 65 years in prison, with him being eligible for parole when he would complete about 65 percent of his 65 years. The family members of the victim were happy with the long sentence, while Joshua apologized for his behavior, saying, “I didn’t mean any of this,” he said. “Nobody deserves such a tragic…” After a short pause, he continued, “I’m not a bad person. This case wasn’t intentional. I wish I handled the situation differently. I ask for (another) chance at life.” Currently, he is serving his sentence behind bars at South Dakota State Penitentiary at 1600 North Drive in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
https://thecinemaholic.com/jamie-wounded-arrow-murder-where-joshua-rayvon-leclaire-now/
https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2017/03/arrest-made-in-jamie-lee-wounded-arrow.html
https://www.facebook.com/SF2spirit/photos/a.413037308878988/714935745355808/
