Coming up.

Nikki had left her house and came back that morning, like around five in the morning on June 6th,

but then left again with all they knew was that it was an unknown, older Russian male at the time.

For Vault Studios, I'm Reid Redmond.

You're listening to The Daily Crime.

Tonight, loved ones remembering a Vancouver teenager killed.

Police believe because she was transgender.

Last month, after more than two long years, someone was finally tried for the murder of

Nikki Kuhnhausen, a 17-year-old last seen alive in June of 2019.

And I believe that this man took her life because she was Nikki.

Ashley Korsland is a reporter at KGW and host of multiple Vault Studios podcasts,

most recently The Yellow Car,

which is available now. But Ashley, we're going to be talking about another big story you've

been covering out near Portland, the murder of 17-year-old Nikki Kuhnhausen. Before we get into it,

tell us about Nikki. Who was she? Yeah, so read, as you said, Nikki was just 17 when she died, so she was a high school student.

And her mom said that Nikki always wanted to be a makeup artist one day.

She had her whole life ahead of her.

Her friend said she wanted to be on America's next top model.

And Nikki was transgender.

And so her mom said, though, she was always confident with who she was.

You know, as early as sixth grade in middle school, Nikki was confident in the person she was.

She loved to wear her hair long, and she loved makeup. And everyone described her as just a fun, loving, beautiful young teenager.

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