MERCER COUNTY, Pa. — The Shenango Valley community is making sure a transgender Mercer County teen is remembered and respected.
Pauly Likens, 14, whose dismembered remains were found around the Shenango River Lake, would have turned 15 years old on Saturday, July 6.
Pamela Ladner, the founder and president of the LGBTQIA+ Alliance Shenango Valley, said Likens’ horrific murder hit the community hard.
“We’re a small community,” she said. “I know it has shaken the entire community being such a young person and for them to be taken in such a grueling manner.”
Ladner said her nonprofit is the only support group in Mercer County. Recently, she reached out to Likens’ mother to offer support.
“I have a 17-year-old non-binary child of my own, so from a mom aspect and also the organization that we run, I felt kind of a personal connection,” Ladner said.
Likens’ mom told Ladner that Likens was a transgender girl and believes her gruesome murder was a hate crime.
“She just said based on the manner in which and what this person did to Pauly, that it had to have taken a lot of hate and anger to do those terrible things,” said Ladner.
Investigators found some of Likens’ body scattered around Shenango River Lake on June 25, days after she was reported missing.
State Police said Likens met up with DaShawn Watkins, 29, at the canoe launch after meeting on a dating app.
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Watkins is now charged in connection with her death, accused of killing, cutting up and disposing of her body in the reservoir.
“That’s just not something that happens around here, so it’s just a major shock all the way around,” Ladner said.
Pennsylvania Youth Congress, a statewide LGBTQ civil rights group, is now calling on the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania to recommend pursuing federal hate crimes against the suspect.
“I personally feel it most definitely should be charged as a hate crime,” said Ladner. “I feel like without all the details of the case it’s hard to say that for certain.”
Lander’s support group, LGBTQIA+ Alliance Shenango Valley, is holding a candlelight vigil for Likens at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 13 on the organization’s lawn at 87 Stambaugh Ave. in Sharon.
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