Latest / Best of: Features / After years of investigation, public scrutiny, SF drag legend's cause of death revealed

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After years of investigation, public scrutiny, SF drag legend's cause of death revealed · Best of: Features

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  After years of investigation, public scrutiny, SF drag Legend's cause of death,
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  revealed. Written by Amanda Bartlett. This article is being read by an
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  automated voice generated by Everlet. Police in London have announced San Francisco
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  drag legend Heclina's because of death, concluding a three and a half
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  year long investigation that sent shockwaves through San Francisco's arts communities after
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  the performer was found dead in a Soho flat by her friend,
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  fellow drag luminary, Peaches Christ, in twenty twenty three. Now, police are
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  also admitting the case was mishandled because of investigative bias, after CCTV
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  footage of three men leaving Heclina's flat was not released for twenty
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  one months, leading to widespread public scrutiny. Ceclina, born Stefan Thor Grigelko,
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  died of acute mixed drug toxicity, with cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamines, GHB, and
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  ketamine, among the illegal substances found in her system. The San Francisco
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  Chronicle first reported after reviewing the september fifteenth inquest, police determined that
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  she had consumed the drugs consensually over the course of forty eight
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  hours. Peaches Christ, also known as Joshua Grannell, was sharing a flat
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  with Hecklina while the rehearsed for an upcoming production. The doo were
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  days away from co-starring in a two week run of the musical
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  parody Mommy Queerist at the Soho Theater. Grannell had checked into a
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  hotel over the weekend after Hecklina expressed interest in using their flat
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  to arrange sexual encounters with men she met on gay hookup apps.
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  The morning Granell returned, he found the door had been left ajar,
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  and her belongings were strewn all over the flat, Grannell previously told
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  S F Gate. Drugs were present, indicating she had relapsed after years
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  of sobriety. It wasn't until he stepped into the living room that
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  he found his friend on the floor, in drag and motionless. He
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  realized she was cold to the touch. Grannell immediately called police and
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  was ruled out as a suspect, but said it took years for
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  the coroner to release an autopsy report or other official paperwork. In
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  may twenty twenty three, he helped put on a memorial for her
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  at the Castro Theatre that drew thousands of people and shut down
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  the street. A tribute to her was featured on an episode of
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  RuPaul's Drag Race, and her likeness was added to the Showtime mural
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  at Oasis. Meanwhile, communication from London Metropolitan Police all but dwindled. Granell
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  said he and Nancy French, Heclina's close friend and legal next of
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  kin, often went months without hearing from the Granell began to wonder
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  if the circumstances under which Hecklina's body was found had contributed to
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  prejudice in the investigation. A month before her death, an independent review
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  of Met Police, led by Baroness Louise Casey, found evidence of institutional
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  homophobia within the department. Those suspicions were confirmed in emails reviewed by
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  SF Gate and by London police in a conversation over Zoom in
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  february twenty twenty four, when Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Dean Purvis
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  told Grannell in French, an officer had been removed from the case
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  over conscious or unconscious bias. The release of the C C T
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  V footage in january twenty twenty five was the first public update
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  they received since the announcement of Heclina's death at the age of
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  fifty five. Grannell said he doesn't believe this information would have come
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  to light had he not reached out to an editor at the
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  Guardian, who assigned a reporter to a story about the investigation. Later
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  that March, police staff investigator Natalie Juchat, the fifth investigator assigned to
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  lead the case, traveled to California to speak with Granelle in French,
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  confirming that a combination of an amount of drugs that would be
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  considered lethal were found in Heclina's system, the specifics of which were
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  not shared publicly. Criticism over the handling of the investigation culminated in
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  dual protests that same month. People marched from Big Bend to Scotland
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  Yard in London, and from the stud to Oasis Stateside, the bar
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  where Hecklina first shaped San Francisco's alternative drag scene in the nineteen
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  nineties through Te Shack, a DIY punk spectacle of a show then
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  ran every Tuesday night for twelve years, and the queer nightclub she
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  co founded in Soma in twenty fourteen. London met You're Not Done
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  Yet, the crowds chanted. A recent statement provided to SF Gate by
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  Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Christina Jessa said that detectives found no
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  evidence to suggest third party involvement or that his death was suspicious,
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  but acknowledged the initial investigation into Stephen's death was not good enough.
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  While the shortcomings identified ultimately had no bearing on the outcome of
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  this tragedy, the investigation did not meet the high standards we expect
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  of ourselves, Jessa wrote. We also recognize that our early poor communication
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  with Stephen's next of kin compounded their grief at what was already
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  an incredibly difficult time. We have apologized to them directly. During a
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  conversation over Zoom last week, Grannell told SF Gate he wasn't surprised
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  by the latest developments. It's more just kind of shocking and frustrating
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  that it took so long to get us to the point where
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  we got the answer that I think we thought we were going
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  to get, he said from the old mint, where he was preparing
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  for opening weekend of his annual immersive haunt, Terror Vault. Because of
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  being ignored and the frustrations of the Met, it doesn't feel like
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  closure. What has confounded him is what he's learned about the Met
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  Police's huge and well documented history of a bias against queer people,
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  citing the recent case involving serial killer and rapist Stephen Port, who
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  murdered four young men he met on Grinder in London in twenty
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  fourteen and twenty fifteen. In twenty twenty one, the BBC reported that
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  police failed to link the deaths, accepted fake evidence, and ignored grieving
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  families looking for answers. When it was determined that this department had
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  a systemic homophobia problem, the were supposed to change, Granell said. So
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  I feel feel like our job as friends and activists and people
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  with a platform was to hold them accountable, which is what we
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  did. Following the conclusion of the investigation, UK based television and documentary
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  production company CMG Productions announced it will be producing a documentary about
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  Heclina, tracing the life of a drag queen who changed the world,
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  which will also serve as an indictment of the institution that failed
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  her. The film is expected to include decades of footage from Heclina's
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  performance archive that Grannell recently fundraised to digitize and put online with
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  they help of the GLBT Historical Society, that he described as thousands
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  of hours worth of shows from boxes and boxes and boxes of
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  videotapes. Granell and the filmmaking team hope to release the documentary within
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  the next few years. It's something tangible to throw my creative brain
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  into, and to be a part of, to sort of make sense
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  of this nightmare, Grinnell said. If we are able to use this
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  film to tell the extraordinary story of this trailblazer, who was very
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  truly punk rock, and really did things for drag that had not
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  been done, then that's the thing I can kind of get excited
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  about and spend time and energy on. Grinnell's hope is that young
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  people who are exposed to Heclina's story will find a source of
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  inspiration and a narrative about her art form they may not be
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  accustomed to, one that existed long before the televised days of Drag
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  Race. I think a lot of young queer people don't really know
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  what drag was like before that show existed, and I think they're
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  surprised when they realize, oh no, Drag was way more shocking, way
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  more button pushing, way more interesting, quite frankly. He said, so a
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  documentary about Heclina is sort of the silver lining that I'm kind
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  of leaning into.