Lauren Heike, 29, a beauty technician, was murdered off a community hiking trail in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2023. Neighbors found her dead at the foot of a barbed wire fence. She had 15 stab wounds.
On 6 October 2026, the New York Post reported that Zion Teasley, 25, a trans-identified male, pleaded guilty to murdering her. The plea deal takes the death penalty off the table. He will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The Post cites a 400-page police report obtained by ABC 15 last year. In a diary in that report, Teasley wrote that he was "battling with my gender identity and sexuality," in conflict with his Christian faith. He said he was depressed by seeing "beautiful" women because he was stuck being "a man."
In his first interview with police, Teasley denied seeing Heike anywhere but the news. He then told officers, "That's what I would want to look like."
Surveillance footage showed him stalking Heike, a stranger, chasing her down, killing her with a pocket knife, and jumping a fence to escape. DNA on her shoes matched Teasley, who was on probation after serving a year in prison for armed robbery and other offenses. He was arrested days later at home, about a mile from the trail. His boss told police he had recently been fired for being "aggressive" toward female employees, and that he had stolen clothing matching what the killer wore. Teasley entered U.S. Marine Corps recruit training in March 2019 and left three months later, before completing boot camp.
Heike's family told ABC 15: "After 3½ incredibly long and painful years, our family supports the State's decision to enter into a plea agreement in Lauren's case. This means we will not have to endure a trial or sit in a courtroom and hear every painful detail of the crime that took Lauren from us." … "While no sentence will ever bring Lauren back, we are relieved knowing that he will never be released," … "He will never again have the opportunity to harm another person or cause another family to experience the unimaginable grief and trauma that ours has endured."
Teasley told police that Lauren Heike was what he would want to look like. In court, his attorney referred to him as "she."
- arizona
- united states