Trans woman found dead in woods two days after friends found her gone and blood on her mattress

After friends of Mayla Gomes visited her home and discovered a blood-stained mattress, it sparked a search that ended tragically.

Gomes, a transgender woman and hairdresser, was found dead in Novo Progresso, southwest of Pará, Brazil, two days after she went missing on Saturday, December 14. Preliminary reports suggest that Mayla had brought a young man to her home before her disappearance.

Her body, showing clear signs of violence, was found in a wooded area in the Jardim Santarém neighborhood on Monday, December 16. The motive behind the crime remains unclear, with investigators trying to determine if it was a 'crime of passion' or a hate crime related to Mayla's gender identity, according to Remembering Our Dead.

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The Civil Police have stated that teams from the Novo Progresso police station are working to identify and apprehend those involved. Initially treated as a robbery with concealment of a corpse, the case is still under investigation.

Expert reports have been requested and witnesses will be interviewed in the coming days to aid the investigation.

The Transgender Homicide Tracker by Everytown revealed a staggering 93% surge in homicides of trans and gender-nonconforming people across the United States and Puerto Rico within the past four years. In 2021 alone, there were 56 reported killings, a significant jump from the 29 deaths recorded in 2017.

Alarmingly, Black trans women, who represent just 13% of the transgender population according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, made up almost three-quarters of the homicide victims. "Bias-motivated crimes are a real, frightening problem in the United States, and LGBTQ+ people continue to be targeted because of who they are," stated the report from Everytown.

Globally, the situation is also dire, with the Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT) project documenting that a disconcerting 78% of murderers of trans women occurred in Central and South America, with Brazil topping the list for most murders. In a grim tally for Brazil, at least 145 trans people were murdered in 2023, as reported by the National Association.

São Paulo recorded the highest number of transgender murders with 19 cases, but Rio de Janeiro and Paraná saw the most significant increase in killings since 2022, with the number of murders doubling year over year. Despite transphobia being classified as a crime in Brazil since 2019, the country continues to have the highest number of transgender and queer people murdered worldwide.

In fact, Brazil topped the list for the 13th consecutive year in 2021. The total number of trans women and queer people murdered is the highest since data recording began in 2008.

According to TGEU’s document, 96% of those killed globally are trans women and transfeminized individuals, and 58% of the murdered trans people were sex workers. The average age of the victims is 30, and about 36% of the murders occurred on the streets, while 24% took place inside the victims' homes.