Friends of a transgender woman who was found murdered in a Baldwin Park motel last week recall her as a kind and funny person, though also shy and nervous around other people.
Melony Smith was found dead the afternoon of September 9 at the Grand Park Inn on Francisquito Avenue just south of the 10 Freeway. She had mostly lived there for the last few years, friends say. She was initially identified by the Coroner's Department as male and by her birth name, Vanhxay Inthichac.
Leticia Alvarado, a West Covina resident who works part-time at the Grand Park Inn befriended Smith over the three and a half years she worked there. She said Smith was kind to everyone at the motel and was well-liked. She was funny with those friends that she had, but did was somewhat shy and did not like going out, Alvarado said.
"She was quiet with people she did not know, but she would make [her friends] laugh, she was happy around them," Alvarado said.
Stephen Gonzales, 28, was arrested last week for Smith's murder and appeared in court Tuesday on charges of murder with a special enhancement for killing during the course of a robbery.
Smith left home at age 16 because her parents did not approve of her dressing and identifying as a young woman, Alvarado said. Despite leaving home, she still finished high school at Sierra Vista High. She worked as a security guard and wanted to go to school to be a dental hygienist, according to Misty Vane, another friend of hers.
Both Alvarado and Vane described her as somewhat afraid of people - Alvardo said she feared that she could be hurt because she identified as transgender. At less than 5 feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds, she felt vulnerable, Alvarado said. And she felt she could not confide in many around her.
"She would say 'you're all I have, you're my sister, you are the only one who really cares,'" Alvarado said.
Smith would live at the hotel for 28 days out of each month and left for the rest at the request of the hotel to avoid being a monthly tenant. She was more easily able to afford living there than at an apartment with regular monthly rent, Alvarado said.
She was saving up money for a car down payment so she could more easily get to school, according to Alvarado. She kept cash in her room at the motel because it was hard for her to regularly get to her bank branch without reliable transportation, Alvarado said. She had about $1,200 there at the time of her murder, the money Gonzalez is charged with stealing in the course of the crime.
Alvarado said she and others at the hotel were not familiar with Gonzalez and police have so far not disclosed the relationship between the two.
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