Family, LGBTQ community seek answers in Persia Conway's death investigation
Persia Amarra Conway’s body was found in a stormwater catch basin near Brays Bayou, and Houston police have not said whether she was targeted. A June 2 vigil at the Montrose Center turned grief into a demand for answers.
The death of Persia Amarra Conway has left Houston’s transgender community grieving and looking for answers as police continue to investigate what happened near Brays Bayou.
Houston police said officers responded on Memorial Day, May 25, 2026, to a report of a body in a stormwater catch basin at 8950 Country Creek Drive, adjacent to Brays Bayou. The initial response location was in the 8900 block of Country Creek Drive near Beechnut Street and Club Creek Basin Park. Reporting from the scene said two people walking in the area found the body around 8:15 a.m. Houston Fire Department paramedics pronounced the person dead.
Police have identified the case as pending autopsy results, and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences will determine the cause of death. Investigators have not said whether they believe Conway was targeted because she was transgender, and no suspect information has been released. That silence has deepened the pain for Conway’s family, who want to know whether the death was random, a hate crime or some other act of violence.
Conway’s mother, Michelle Conway, has asked for justice for her daughter as the family presses Houston police for clarity. The unanswered questions have also widened the case beyond a single death investigation and into a broader concern for safety, accountability and trust in how violent deaths involving transgender victims are handled in Harris County.
Nearly 300 people gathered Tuesday, June 2, at the Montrose Center to remember Conway and demand answers. The vigil brought together family members, advocates and community leaders, including Avery Belyeu, Jevon Martin of FLUX Houston, Atlantis Narcisse of Save Our Sisters United and Emmett Morales-Yoon. The gathering reflected how quickly Conway’s death became a focal point for Houston’s LGBTQ community, especially for transgender women of color who say violence and indifference too often overlap.
The Montrose Center, which opened in 1978, has long served as Houston’s LGBTQ community hub and has provided services for transgender people, including gender-affirming support. Its role in hosting the vigil gave the moment added weight in a neighborhood that has long been a center of organizing, care and survival for queer and trans Houstonians.
The broader context is stark. The Human Rights Campaign said in 2025 it had tracked almost 400 fatal violence cases against transgender and gender-nonconforming people since 2013, with 70% involving Black victims and nearly 60% involving Black trans women. Federal Bureau of Investigation hate-crime data released in August 2025 showed 11,679 hate-crime incidents in 2024, with 4% based on gender identity. For Conway’s family and Houston’s transgender community, those numbers are part of a larger fear: that another local death could be reduced to a statistic unless investigators move quickly and transparently.
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