Police have arrested David Bogdanov, 25, for the murder of Nikki Kuhnhausen, a transgender teen who was 17 when she went missing in June in Vancouver. Police this week recovered Kuhnhausen's remains off a remote logging road after they were discovered by someone collecting bear grass.
KATU reports: “Detectives say Bogdanov had allegedly been talking with Kuhnhausen on Snapchat and planned to meet on June 6, when she was last seen alive. Authorities say cell phone records for that day show Bogdanov's cell phone was in the same remote area where her body was found.”
Said Lieutenant Tom Ryan of the Vancouver Police Dept. Major Crimes Unit: “We suspect that there was probably some interaction where – and by his own admission – that he determined that, somehow found out during conversation that she was transgender and he stated that he – that was offensive to his culture and he asked her to get out of his van.”
According to the warrant, KATU reports in a broadcast segment (below), Kuhnhausen told Bogdanov that she was biologically male, and Bogdanov told police that he was “really, really disturbed” to learn that information.
“Bogdanov admitted to the conversation and said he asked Kuhnhausen to get out of his car — but said she walked away and he never saw her after that,” The Oregonian reports.
The Oregonian adds: “[Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim] Kapp said investigators had pinged Bogdanov's phone and found that it had been in that area around the time Kuhnhausen went missing. But she said the area is so vast and rugged that it would have been difficult to narrow the search to one area from that ping. She said even after the passerby found Kuhnhausen's skull, search and rescue crews spent hours in the area trying to find Kuhnhausen's remains.”
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