Brutal Murder of Transgender Man in Upstate New York Sickens Officials
After the Trump administration has continued to target transgender members of the LGBTQ+ community, a transgender man who was reported missing last week suffered repeated acts of violence before being found dead in an upstate New York field, according to New York State Police.
Sam Nordquist, originally from Minnesota, was reported missing on Feb. 9. Authorities said he had been in New York since September and had lost contact with his family. His family has started a GoFundMe campaign to be able to afford to go to New York State and retrieve his remains.
Nordquist’s family requested a welfare check, which led investigators to determine that he had been living at Patty’s Lodge in Hopewell with multiple individuals, including one of the suspects, as reported by local news outlets. One of the suspects, Precious Arzuaga, is believed to have been Nordquist’s online girlfriend.
New York State law enforcement officers uncovered evidence that Nordquist had been subjected to ongoing physical abuse from December 2024 to February 2025, officials said.
Ontario County District Attorney James Ritts said, “No human being should have to endure what Sam endured. This is by far the worst homicide investigation that our office has ever been a part of.”
In a Feb. 14 news conference, police confirmed that human remains believed to be Nordquist’s were found in a field off Payne Road in Yates County. Nordquist had been subjected to torture, beaten to death, and the killers abandoned his body in a field in an attempt to escape justice.
“We are here today to provide an update on the case of Sam Nordquist, who was originally reported missing to New York State Police on February 9, 2025,” Trooper Lynnea Crane, public information officer for Troop E, said. “Unfortunately, we must now confirm that this case has transitioned from a missing person investigation to a homicide investigation.”
Five people have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, police said.
The suspects, identified as Precious Arzuaga, 38, and Patrick Goodwin, 30, of Canandaigua; Kyle Sage, 33, of Rochester; Jennifer Quijano, 30, of Geneva; and Emily Motyka, 19, of Lima, are being held pending arraignment without bail.
According to local news outlet KARE, “Two of the five individuals charged with second-degree murder in Nordquist’s death have prior convictions related to sexual offenses against minors. Patrick Goodwin, 30, was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison in 2015 for first-degree sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl and Kyle Sage, 33, was sentenced to two to four years in prison in 2022 for fourth-degree grand larceny and first-degree distribution of pornography to a minor. Sage was released from prison in May 2024.
