Nikki Kuhnhausen. (Undated family photo via the Vancouver, Washington Police Department)
The 27-year-old man convicted by a Clark County, Washington jury last month in the murder of Nikki Kuhnhausen, a 17-year-old female transgender teenager who went missing in 2019, was sentenced Sept. 9 to the maximum sentence of 19½ years in prison.
David Bogdanov, who showed no reaction as his sentence was handed down by the judge, was convicted on one count of second-degree murder along with an additional count of malicious harassment, which is a hate crime in the state of Washington.
Speaking to the media after the sentencing surrounded by family members and supporters, Lisa Woods, the mother of Kuhnhausen, said “I feel so blessed and I am so grateful,” adding “She was just a baby, she was just a teenager and he took her life, you know. He got the maximum and that’s what he deserved.”
Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson became emotional when reading his statement about the case and trial, pointing to Kuhnhausen’s identity and the challenges she had faced as a trans female teen.
“That identity ended in a particularly cruel spasm of violence on June 6, 2019, and it was followed by the most undignified form of final disposition of her body, then by repeated lies and obfuscation,” Gregerson said.
Detectives David Jensen and Jason Mills of the Vancouver, Washington Police Department testified in court that they had examined Kuhnhausen’s Snapchat account which led them to identify Bogdanov as a person of interest in her disappearance, the Columbian newspaper reported. A search warrant for Bogdanov’s Snapchat account corroborated that the two had met and that he gave her a ride in his car.
After Kuhnhausen’s murder Bogdanov dumped her body down the hillside of Larch Mountain, booked a one-way flight to Ukraine and called a friend to “get rid” of his car, according to trial testimony. He returned to the U.S. about six weeks later, the Columbian also reported.
Outrage over the murder had led to the State of Washington enacting a law to prevent a “gay panic defense.” In March of 2020, Gov. Jay Inslee signed the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act, House Bill 1687, making Washington the 10th state to enact such a ban.
“The bill brings us closer to telling the LGBT community they are valued in Washington and closer to honoring Nikki and the positive stride she made on behalf of the trans community,” Inslee said at the time of his signing the legislation.
