Family of Oakdale transgender man slain in New York: ‘Sam was a wonderful person’

Whether they were shopping, traveling or daydreaming on drives around Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, Sam Nordquist and his mother, Linda, spent countless hours together.

But on Saturday, Linda Nordquist of Oakdale and her children Mason and Kayla were in New York state grieving for Sam, whose body was found Thursday in a field in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region.

Officials say they believe five people had physically and psychologically abused Nordquist since December at a motel outside Canandaigua, N.Y., miles from where his body was discovered in Yates County .

According to the New York State Police, the Ontario County District Attorney’s Office has charged Precious Arzuaga, 38, and Jennifer Quijano, 30, both of Geneva, N.Y.; Kyle Sage, 33, of Hopewell, N.Y.; and Patrick Goodwin, 30, and Emily Motyka, 19, both of Rochester, N.Y., with second-degree murder/depraved indifference in connection with Nordquist’s death.

All five were being held at the Ontario County jail.

It was unclear when the suspects will appear in court; officials did not return requests Saturday for the charging documents. An autopsy was planned.

Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man, worked at the Riesco group homes for people with disabilities based in Little Canada. Family members said he left Minnesota in September to meet his online girlfriend in New York, but they lost contact with him on Jan. 1. He was reported missing on Feb. 9.

“Sam was a wonderful person, all full of life,” said Linda Nordquist. “[He] would take his shirt off his back if you needed it more than he did.”

On trips into St. Paul to view the houses along Summit Avenue, she said, Sam would point to the governor’s residence and ask whether that was where Tim Walz lived.

“I’d say, ‘Yes, Sam, it is,’” his mother recalled with a laugh. “‘You’ve been by it a hundred times; you should know where he lives.‘”

In a post Saturday on X, Walz shared his support for the Nordquist family, sending his and wife Gwen’s condolences to them and the community.

“This is deeply disturbing,” Walz wrote of Nordquist’s torture and death. “Minnesota stands with our LGBTQ neighbors against this unthinkable crime.”

Because Nordquist identified as transgender, New York authorities said, they have not ruled out investigating his death as a hate crime.

His sister Kayla, 31, said he was a silly person who never missed the birthdays of her son and two daughters, and liked to escort them while trick-or-treating on Halloween.

As of Saturday afternoon, she said, they didn’t yet know that Sam had been killed.

“All they knew,” Kayla said, “was that their mom needed to go with their grandma and uncle to go get Sam.”

She was critical of staffers at Patty’s Lodge motel, where her brother was allegedly abused. They should have picked up on signs and sounds of his torture, she said.

“They should have knocked on that door to see why they playing excessive music, why someone was yelling — and they didn’t do their part in helping Sam,” his sister said.

She said she wanted her brother remembered for who he was and not how he died. A vigil has been planned for Monday evening outside Wood Library in Canandaigua, a city of about 10,500 people lying about 30 miles southeast of Rochester.

“I have seen [on social media] things that have been done to Sam, and I don’t want people to remember Sam like that,” she said.

“He was beautiful, and he was handsome. And that’s how people should remember him — not for what happened to him.”