An arrest has been made in connection with the brutal murder of transgender woman Persia Amarra Conway on May 25 in Houston, Texas.
The Houston Police Department has arrested 22-year-old Daniel Arnulfo Ceron in connection with the case.
In a press statement, the Houston Police Department said that after being taken into police custody, Ceron admitted to his involvement in Conway’s death, which HPD is investigating as a homicide. According to court documents, he allegedly told police that he beat Conway to death with his hands on May 25, the same day she was found. The filings allege that video also captured Ceron disposing of items that were later identified as acrylic nails, a cellphone, and slippers before leaving the scene. Conway was found naked at the scene.
“One particular individual sent me two photos of this young man and a video, and in the video, he was literally saying and confessing to the murder two days before,” Conway’s mother, Michelle Simmons, told Houston’s ABC affiliate KTRX.
“Persia was not just my daughter,” Simmons wrote in a Facebook post memorializing Conway on May 29, “She was a light. She was a force. She was the kind of person who could walk into a room and leave it brighter than she found it. To know her was to love her.”
Family, friends, and loved ones described Conway as “kind-hearted, funny, ambitious, intelligent, fearless, and absolutely beautiful.” On June 2, Houston’s LGBTQ+ community held a vigil for Conway at a local LGBTQ+ community center.
“To the man accused of murdering my daughter, Daniel Ceron Jr,” Simmons wrote in a Facebook post on June 11, “Because of you, I will never hear my daughter’s voice again. I will never receive another phone call from her. I will never watch her celebrate another birthday, chase another dream, or tell me she loves me. You robbed my family of something that can never be replaced.”
Following the alleged confession, Ceron was charged with murder and booked into the Harris County Jail. Prosecutors have filed a motion to set his bail at $500,000.
Photo courtesy of social media
