Mia Henderson, 26, was found stabbed to death on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, in an alley behind the 3400 block of Piedmont Avenue in northwest Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department investigated the killing, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists her death as a homicide.
Henderson was a transgender woman, and her death came six weeks after another transgender woman, Kandy Hall, 40, was found stabbed in a field in northeast Baltimore.
The two killings frightened the city's transgender community. The Guardian reported that she was attacked "some time in the lonely hours between 2am and 6am" in an alleyway off Garrison Boulevard. Friends remembered her as a "good girl, soft-spoken, harmless, she wouldn't hurt a fly," and another friend said she carried herself "with dignity, with a certain kind of grace." A memorial service was held for her that August.
The day after her body was found, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts met with members of the city's LGBT community. "We are listening. We are paying attention," he told them. "We are responding, and we are taking this very seriously." Her half-brother, NBA player Reggie Bullock, later became an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ people, saying her killing was "something that hit home for me and my family."
In August 2015, police announced that a suspect, already in prison on an unrelated charge, would be charged with murder. Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said, "Mia fought back, and thank God that she fought back," explaining that DNA recovered from under her fingernails had been matched to the suspect. Officials said she had "suffered severe trauma." Reggie Bullock thanked the department publicly at the time, writing that his family could now "rest our hearts." But the case did not end in a conviction. On January 12, 2017, a jury acquitted the man of all charges, and no one else has been charged in her death since.
The 3400 block of Piedmont Avenue sits just off Garrison Boulevard in northwest Baltimore, among rowhouses, alleys and small businesses. The alleys behind those blocks are quiet in the hours before dawn, which may explain why no one came forward to describe what happened there.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No conviction connected to the death of Mia Henderson could be found in news archives or public records, and the one person charged in her killing was acquitted. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Piedmont Avenue and Garrison Boulevard in the early hours of July 16, 2014, or who saw Mia Henderson with someone that night, may know something that could still help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
