In 2008, Angie Zapata was murdered because she was transgender. Now, Liz Seaton, one of the people who helped prosecute her murderer, and currently serves as the Policy Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, is writing a book detailing the story at Alderworks Writer’s Retreat in Dyea, Alaska. Seaton’s new book will describe the case and its significance in inspiring new rights and protections from hate crimes.

June is Pride Month and as author Liz Seaton describes, the month is a time to celebrate being part of the LGBTQ community, but it’s also time to reflect on the growth of the LGBTQ movement.

“One of the things that Pride Month does is provide an opportunity for important stories from the community to be told. And Angie’s is certainly an important story,” said Seaton.

Angie Zapata was an 18-year-old transgender Latina woman from Greeley Colorado. 

“Angie, who was assigned male and given a male name at birth. Liked things that were feminine, she felt female and as she grew older, she chose the name Angie for herself,” said Seaton.

She liked things like makeup, high heels, and shopping with her best friend. She was interested in pursuing Cosmetology and competing in the Miss Latino pageant. But that never happened.

Angie met a man online named Allen Andrade.

They arranged a date and spent the following three days living together, developing a sexual relationship. But when she didn’t show up to babysit for her sister Monica’s children a few days later, her family grew concerned and went to look for her.

“She didn’t show up for work, so finally, they use this spare key that Monica had to her apartment. And they, they went in and they found her they’re dead on the floor under a blanket. And when they pull back the blanket, of course, it was a horrific scene,” recalls Seaton.

She was found beaten to death. Nobody at the time knew who did it. The story went coast to coast garnering national media attention. After two weeks police were called to a neighboring town about a noise complaint.

“The way the police finally found him, was that he was sitting in his car in the middle of the night blaring loud music in front of his girlfriend’s apartment complex,” said Seaton.

But it wasn’t his car, it was Angie’s mother’s car, which he had stolen. Andrade was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants that night but gave police a full confession about the murder saying he had murdered Angie Zapata with a fire extinguisher.

“But as it later turned out the police had violated his Miranda rights because one of the rights is the right to say I’m done being questioned, it’s the right to remain silent,” said Seaton.

So a judge ruled much of the confession had to be suppressed. And the case went to trial. The defense argued that Zapata had not told Andrade she was transgender and when he found out, in a crime of passion, he murdered her. 

But the jury disagreed and Andrade was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus the judge tacked on an additional 60 years.

“The success in Angie’s case, happened the same year that the Federal hate crimes law was under consideration in Congress. And her case, when the jury convicted him unanimously on all counts helped us to win the federal hate crimes law,” said Seaton.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress in 2009, and it added new protections against crimes based on gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. To date, at least 29 transgender people have been murdered this year in America.

Seaton is at the end of her residency at Alderworks in Dyea. She has made massive progress on her first book during her time in the remote Alaska retreat but still found time to take occasional breaks and enjoy the serene beauty of West Creek or help pull weeds from the Alderworks garden. She hopes to have the book ready to publish sometime next year but doesn’t as yet have a title.