Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, was found dead at her home in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Jan. 5, The Berkshire Eagle reported. According to medical examiners who were on the scene, Steele-Knudslien suffered a stab wound to her torso and blunt force trauma to her head. Her body was found wrapped in tarp and bedding and tied up in the basement.
Her husband, Mark Steele-Knudslien, has been charged with her murder. Police told MassLive that the 47-year-old said he’d “snapped” and done “something very bad” during a Jan. 5 interview, during which he also said he struck his wife with a hammer and stabbed her with a knife.
During a Monday arraignment, Mark Steele-Knudslien pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. He’s set for a pretrial hearing Feb. 7.
Among those who shared condolences was Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project Director Dru Levasseur, who called Steele-Knudslien a “powerful organizer and fierce activist.”
“I am so sorry to those who were very close to her. We must all support each other in this time of horror and sadness,” Levasseur wrote Monday. “She deserved better. She deserved life and happiness.”
Justin Adkins, a friend of Steele-Knudslien, echoed those sentiments. “Her thing was always that transgender women are beautiful and need a venue for trans women to be seen as beautiful,” Adkins told the New York Post.
She was memorialized on social media by a number of prominent LGBTQ advocacy groups, including GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign.
We are deeply saddened by the tragic murder of Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, a 42-year-old #transgender woman found dead in her home in Massachusetts on Friday night. https://t.co/tocoTLVnyF
Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien is the 1st known transgender person to be killed this year. Violence against transgender people, especially trans women of color, must receive more national media attention.https://t.co/9NtNsvCRRU
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