Nikki G. Kunhausen was a teenager who disappeared from Vancouver, Washington in June 2019. She was last known to have been picked up by an man she had been communicating with online. After her partial remains were recovered six months after she went missing, a conviction was made.
Recovery and aftermath[]
She was recovered deceased six months after she went missing, and the cause of her death was strangulation. David Bogdanov, the last-known person to see her alive was charged with her murder, believed to have been motivated by Nikki's admission of being transgender. Bogdanov, who made various transphobic statements during questioning, claimed he acted in self-defense, changing his previous account of her death, alleging Kuhnhausen became violent upon his rejection of her, while high on methamphetamine.
She was commonly misgendered and deadnamed by missing person resources and media, despite legally changing her name and gender, according to members of LAMMP.
In August 2021, Bogdanov was found guilty of her murder. The state later passed a law in Kuhnhausen’s name banning the “gay/trans panic” defense in court.
Media[]
- Kuhnhausen’s case was the subject of the series premiere of How I Caught My Killer in 2023.
- 48 Hours covered the case in 2021, on an episode titled “The Life and Death of Nikki Kuhnhausen".