A transgender woman in Missouri was executed on Tuesday for killing a former girlfriend over two decades ago.
49-year-old Amber McLaughlin was convicted of stalking and killing a former girlfriend, then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. McLaughlin was given the death sentence on Tuesday when Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined her clemency request.
As the fatal dose of pentobarbital was injected, McLaughlin whispered softly to a spiritual advisor by her side. McLaughlin took several deep breaths before closing her eyes. A few minutes later, she was declared dead.
“I am sorry for what I did,” she said in a final, written, statement. “I am a loving and caring person.”
McLaughlin’s clemency petition cited her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury was never told about during her trial. The petition also included reports citing diagnoses of gender dysphoria, a disorder that results in suffering and other symptoms when a person’s gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth have been altered.
But her lawyer, Larry Komp, said her sexual orientation was “not the main emphasis” of the clemency request.
McLaughlin was dating Beverly Guenther in 2003, long before she transitioned. Court documents reveal that McLaughlin would frequently appear at Guenther’s suburban St. Louis workplace after they broke up, sometimes hiding inside. Police officers occasionally escorted Guenther to her vehicle after work due to the restraining order she had received.
On the night of November 20, 2003, Guenther’s neighbors reported her disappearance to the police. Officers arrived at the office building and discovered a blood trail and a broken knife handle close to her car. A day later, McLaughlin directed police to the spot where the body had been discarded in St. Louis, close to the Mississippi River. Authorities said that she had been raped and had been repeatedly stabbed with a steak knife.
McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree murder in 2006. A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury deadlocked on the sentence. A court ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2016, but a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
“McLaughlin terrorized Ms. Guenther in the final years of her life, but we hope her family and loved ones may finally have some peace,” Parson said in a statement after the execution.
