Feb. 16 (UPI) — A missing person investigation in Upper New York has led to five people being charged with murder in the death of a transgender man from Minnesota named Sam Nordquist.
“Sam was subjected to repeated acts of violence and torture in a manner that ultimately led to his death,” New York State Police Capt. Kelly Swift said Friday during a press conference.
The suspects moved his body “in an attempt to conceal the crime,” Swift said, calling the crime “one of the most horrific” she has investigated over the past 20 years.
Police on Feb. 13 found remains thought to be Nordquist’s in a field located off Payne Road in Yates County about 50 miles southeast of Rochester.
New York State Police initiated a missing person investigation after Nordquist’s family asked police to conduct a welfare check on Nordquist, 24, New York State Police said Friday in a news release.
Troopers assigned to the State Police post in Canandaigua determined Nordquist had been staying with suspect Precious Arzuaga, 38, and others at Patty’s Lodge in Hopewell, N.Y.
Investigators found evidence that Nordquist endured “ongoing physical abuse” from December 2024 to February, including being beaten with sticks, ropes, dog toys, canes and belts and was assaulted with a broomstick and a table leg for weeks before dying, court documents indicate.
The five suspects are Arzuaga and Jennifer A. Quijano, 30, of Geneva, N.Y.; Patrick A. Goodwin, 30, and Emily Motyka, 19, of Rochester, N.Y.; and Kyle Sage, 33, of Hopewell, N.Y.
The Ontario County District Attorney’s Office charged each suspect with murder in the second degree – depraved indifference.
They were arraigned on Friday and are being held without bail but are innocent until proven guilty.
Nordquist traveled to New York in September to meet his online girlfriend and had purchased a round-trip ticket, his sister Kayla said in a GoFundMe campaign for the family to travel to New York after losing contact with Nordquist.
Investigators said they found a “deeply disturbing pattern of abuse” at the motel on Thursday, the New York Post reported.
