Chanel Chandler :::Crying out in the darkness::: How many of us must die? Gwen ===================>8=================== Secret identity of victim deepens Clovis murder mystery By Kimi Yoshino The Fresno Bee (Published November 9, 1998) Chanel Chandler slipped into a black minidress with silver and gold stripes. The 22-year-old set out for a night of dancing, partying at a Fresno club until 2 a.m. It was a typical night out for a single woman, Clovis police said. Five hours later, Chandler was dead. Her body was found inside a burning Clovis apartment she shared with another woman. Police believe the blaze was set to make her murder look like another type of crime. It was nearly a week before police revealed her name and the case's biggest twist: Chanel Chandler was really a man. Whether that led to her death is a mystery, police said. "In a situation like this, that's the first motive you jump on, obviously, but you don't want to let that keep you from exploring other options, too," Clovis Police Department spokeswoman Micheline Golden said. More than one month after Chandler's death Sept. 20 and after interviewing numerous people, police know more about Chandler's life but have yet to make an arrest. "The impression we have is that she pretty much lived the life of a normal, single 22-year-old woman," Golden said. "This is someone who led a very quiet lifestyle." Quiet maybe, but far from routine. Chandler was born Charles William Roe into a conservative Montana family. "It was a fairly nice childhood," said his aunt, Carla Coronado. "He was just a normal kid." By the time he hit his teens, however, it grew more and more apparent that Roe wanted to be a woman. He dropped out of high school and moved from Montana. He headed to San Francisco - and a new life. Though he stayed in contact with family, not everyone approved of his decision. His father, Clyde Roe, said: "I haven't talked to Charles in years. I didn't approve of his lifestyle." Some relatives, Coronado said, remain unaware of the transformation from Charles to Chanel. Roe changed his name to Chanel Chandler, using it on rental and job applications. Every piece of identification that Clovis police discovered inside the apartment contained the new name. "Whatever transition he had to go through, I don't think it was difficult," Coronado said. "In his mind, she was a female. There was no two ways about it. C always wanted to be a female and always felt that he had been cheated, that it was a mistake." After moving, he underwent breast implant surgery, but never had his male sex organs removed. Friends and relatives say Chandler even married a man in Sacramento, although officials found no record of a marriage. That man, whom Chandler lived with in Citrus Heights, declined to be interviewed. "She was straight. It's kind of weird," Coronado said. "She always dated men." During the years Chandler lived in California, she closely guarded her "secret." "Not telling people, that was important," Coronado said. "Even people that were very close to her, I don't think they had any idea." Taken by surprise One friend, Charlie Gilbert, who considered himself a friend, brother and father figure to her, said he was stunned after Chandler's death to learn that she was a man. "I'm surprised as hell," Gilbert said. "It's almost like you're putting me on." Even Chandler's roommate, a woman with whom she worked, was unaware of her gender, police said. After moving to California, Gilbert said, Chandler bounced around, living for a time in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Citrus Heights and Fair Oaks before heading to Clovis in June. It always seemed that Chandler was in search of a better life, Gilbert said. But while she tried to improve herself personally and professionally, she moved from one stormy relationship to another, he said. "It seemed like she attracted abuse." Failed relationship She moved to Clovis in part to escape a failed relationship with the man she told friends was her husband. A business venture also brought her to Clovis, where she started up a perfume wholesale business called Global Merchandising with her roommate, a friend she knew from Sacramento. "She was really excited," Gilbert said. "She said there's no limit to what she could do. I wouldn't be surprised if she was wealthy in 10 years. She had that energy and drive." Chandler's roommate and business partner declined to be interviewed for this story. Their landlord at the Garden Villa Apartments in Clovis said the women were good tenants who paid their rent on time. The two were rarely at home, she said. On Sept. 20, the morning Chandler was killed, her roommate was away from home. Police know that Chandler was dropped off near her Clovis apartment about 2 a.m. The man who took her home has been questioned and cleared by police, Golden said. Mystery hours Chandler may have walked to a nearby convenience market before returning home, but the next five hours remain a mystery. Sometime during the night, someone killed Chandler - police won't say how - then set the apartment on fire. The fire was set in the living room and extinguished before spreading to the bedroom, where firefighters discovered Chandler's body. "We've questioned a number of people, quite a few people who lived in that area, who may have seen her, and none of those leads have panned out to be anything at all," Golden said.
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