Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man. Previously this month, we have remembered Rosemary Gill, Laura Davies, Lisa Anthony together with her daughter Ava, Carol Milne, Hollie Gazzard, Tracy Baker and on the 19th of July, twenty-year-old Celine Dookhran, who was raped and murdered by her uncle – Mujahid Arshid.
All the above deaths followed a familiar pattern. A woman killed by a man she knows, invariably in their own home.
Today’s remembrance is very different – we remember Suzie Morl, a trans woman from Manchester who a man and a woman murdered.
All lives are of equal value and while some “feminist” remembrance websites refuse to accept trans women – we most certainly do not.
So I repeat – all lives are equal.
Further, a woman is rarely implicated in the death of another human being. This is not the case today – this indeed is a “one-off” story that does not share the usual patterns that I see and write about.
Suzie Morl was a trans woman who Tracy Hurrell befriended after falling out with her partner David Hardman. Both Hurrell and Hardman were drug addicts who lived sordid lives. Over a period of months, Hurrell started to re-form her relationship with Hardman, and the two plotted together to bully Suzie and steal her money so to fund their addiction habits. Then, one day in July 2011, exactly ten years ago – Suzie was murdered in Hardman’s flat, her body dumped in a suitcase.
And there, she was left.
A few weeks later, the police visited a neighbouring flat and noticed a horrific smell coming from Hardman’s home. The flat owner confirmed that Hurrell had told them there was a dead woman in Hardman’s flat, and on investigation, they found Suzie’s body – it was rotting, swarming in flies and maggots.
Both Hardman and Hurrell were charged and subsequently found guilty of murder – given life sentences.
The BBC reported this:
Senior investigating officer Andy Tattersall said: “Hurrell and Hardman were both dependent on alcohol and drugs and went to desperate lengths to obtain cash to fund their habits. This is reflected in the theft of benefits before and after they killed Suzie”.
“Each blames the other for what happened and both have fabricated different stories so we might never know exactly what happened and why”.
“What we do know is that from start to finish, they worked together.”
He added that Suzie “was a popular member of the community who was in the process of re-contacting her siblings when she was murdered. Sadly they never got the opportunity to reunite, but I hope they find comfort in today’s sentencing.”
But this is not quite the end.
I often get pretty upset and emotional when researching these stories. Invariably I see the typical pattern of male abuse and police failure.
This story is different in circumstance but also in the language used by the media outlets when reporting this horrific case.
The BBC was respectful – the Daily Mail and Manchester Evening News (I would argue) very disrespectful because quite simply …Suzie was trans.
In the last ten years, perhaps in some respects, we have taken a step forward.
Suzie Morl.
#EveryThreeDays
Authored by Steph @PlaceSteph
