Born in Puerto Rico in 1986, Lorena Escalera worked as a makeup artist in her native country before moving to New York City when she turned eighteen, with aspirations of becoming a model and performer. Once arriving in the big city, Escalera joined the famous performance house, The House of Xtravaganza, a staple of the underground ballroom scene that rose to fame after it was featured in the popular 1990 documentary, Paris is Burning. Lorena immediately began performing and competing for prizes, and eventually took the name La’reina Xtravaganza.
On May 11th, 2012, according to witnesses, Escalera brought two men to her apartment on Furman Avenue in Bushwick. Hours later, at around four in the morning, a fire broke out in the building; someone passing by on the street saw the flames and ran into the building, banging on doors and telling everyone to get out. All but one of the residents of the four-story building were able to escape unscathed; it was soon noted that Lorena was not among them.
When firefighters extinguished the blaze and searched the premises, they discovered Lorena, lying unconscious across her bed. Though attempts were made to save her, she was subsequently declared dead at the scene. It was later determined that Lorena had been strangled, and the fire set to hide evidence of the crime.
Lorena’s roommates later told authorities that some electrical work had recently been done in the building and that the workers had left holes around the outlets that were stuffed with cardboard. A neighbor also stated that they believed the two men who had entered Lorena’s apartment earlier in the day were arguing outside of the building while the fire was burning.
Lorena’s murder brought back tragic memories for longtime members of the House of Xtravaganza; in 1988, another transgender performer, Venus Xtravaganza, was found strangled under a bed at the Duchess Hotel in New York City.
In 2017, the media reported that an ex-con named Henry Pacheco, who had been arrested for punching his girlfriend and was also a suspect in the murder of twenty-seven-year-old Brooke Garcia in Alphabet City, was a person of interest in the Lorena Xtravaganza case. As of this writing, however, the crime remains unresolved.
Crime Immemorial 