A missing transgender woman was found unresponsive Tuesday in Macon, Ga.
Candace Towns, 30, was found just after 4 p.m. in a driveway between two abandoned houses in the 1500 block of Rosecrest Ave. Towns had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
Towns was reported missing a day before she was found. Surveillance video at a hotel where Towns was living show Towns getting into a car with someone in the early morning hours a day or so before her body was found, The Telegraph reported.
A press release from the sheriff's office identified the victim as Jontavious Towns.
Towns is the 25th transgender person killed in 2017, the most ever recorded. Of those killed, 21 have been transgender women of color, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT civil rights advocacy group that tracks violence against transgender people.
More than 60 percent of the murders have been in the South, according to the HRC, with four in Georgia.
Know what's really going on with crime and public safety in your metro Atlanta community, including breaking news, trial coverage, trends and the latest on unsolved cases. Sign up for the AJC's crime and safety newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox.
About the Author
