HENDRY COUNTY, Fla. — A development in the Bee Love homicide case from 2019 could bring justice to her loved ones and even the Southwest Florida transgender community.
The Hendry County Sheriff’s office received a tip about where a possible weapon could be found connected to the homicide. If found, that could help prosecutors convict a man already facing charges in Love’s killing.
Velvet Lenore, who works with transgender youth in the community, is an activist, and the first transgender marshal for Palm Beach County, says this homicide is close to her.
"I actually went to her memorial; they had me speak at it," Lenore said, thinking back to when this happened over three years ago.
For more than eight hours Wednesday, the Hendry County deputies and seven other agencies worked through two different areas, relentlessly along highway 27, hoping to find the weapon that was used in what Sheriff Steve Whidden and others have called a 'heinous' crime.
"Finally something is being done for us in the community," Lenore said after hearing a lead to where the weapon could be, "I feel like we’re being overlooked too much. If they get this person and prosecute him that would be the best thing to send a message to everybody else to not mess with us."
Lenore spoke at Love’s memorial and said she carries the impact with her to this day, which is why she continues to be an advocate in the transgender community so that trans youth and adults know that they are loved.
Bee Love was 23 when investigators found her badly-burned body inside a vehicle in Clewiston in September 2019. Last December, prosecutors charged Marcus Thompson, a Moore Haven man, with 1st-degree homicide, accessory after the fact, and arson accessory after the fact.
Hendry officials had to call off the search just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday because of the thick vegetation they ran into, which spanned about a mile and a half. Crews will come and clean up the vegetation before they can resume.
