Transgender Teen's Death a Hate Crime?

July 25, 2008— -- An 18-year-old found dead inside her Colorado apartment last week may have been targeted because she was transgender, police said.

"The bottom line is, we can't rule it in, we can't rule it out," Sgt. Joseph Tymkowych, a police spokesman in Greeley, Colo., told ABCNews.com.

Born a male, Justin Zapata, 18, identified herself as a woman and was known to family and friends as Angie. Her body was found in her apartment a week ago, with wounds to the head and face, police say. Missing was her green 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser. Authorities have not yet recovered the car, which they hope will provide evidence that might help crack the case.

"The sooner we can find it, the better," Tymkowych said of the car.

Authorities have released few additional details about the case. They will not say whether the apartment, located in a quiet part of Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver with a population of 75,000, had been broken into. They also have not said whether any items -- beyond Zapata's car -- were missing from the scene. They do, however, think the suspect -- or suspects -- likely had some type of relationship with Zapata.

"We believe the victim knew or was an acquaintance with the suspect," Tymkowych said, adding that they have almost been able to clear a former roommate initially identified as a possible person of interest.

About 200 friends and family -- many from the local gay, lesbian and transgender community -- gathered Wednesday to mourn Zapata's death.

On the same day, the Colorado Anti-Violence Program, working with Zapata's family, issued a statement asking for the public's help finding Zapata's car and condemning the crime as possibly motivated by an anti-transgender bias.

"We want the whole community involved to find this person who hurt my sister and to let everyone be aware that all she wanted was to be beautiful," Angie's sister, Monica, said in the statement. "We want this violence to end. Transgender people deserve to be treated with respect."

There were 177 bias-motivated incidents against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in Colorado in 2007, according to data collected by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. That number was down from 242 in 2006, but the severity of the incidents, according to the report, intensified.