Transgender Woman Shot to Death in South Carolina

April has begun sadly with the murder of another transgender woman -- Sasha Wall, found shot to death in a car on a South Carolina road Sunday morning.

Wall, 29, who was initially misgendered and deadnamed by local media, was shot several times in the neck and shoulder, reports Columbia, S.C., newspaper The State. She was found on a road in rural Chesterfield County.

Her car was sitting on the road, running, for nearly two hours, Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks told Charlotte, N.C., TV station WSOC. The car "was in park, but it was right in the roadway," he said. "People were just going around it."

There was a small-caliber bullet lodged in the driver's door, and the shooter was probably in the passenger seat or just outside the car, Brooks told the station. To another TV station, Charlotte's Fox affiliate, he said the killer was apparently "angry," adding, "You could tell by the number of shots." Investigators think Walls knew her killer, he said, and they haven't characterized her killing as a hate crime, deeming it more likely the result of a domestic dispute.

James Robert Lee, a former boyfriend of Wall's, told WSOC he had seen her Saturday and everything appeared to be fine. "She didn't give any vibe that anything was wrong," he said.

Wall, who lived in a mobile home near Pageland, S.C., was remembered fondly by friends on social media. On Facebook, Donovan Dunlap recalled taking photos of her, saying, "You stayed ready for the camera. I will miss you my beautiful sister. I cannot sleep. I hope they find who did this."

Wall is the eighth transgender person reported murdered in 2018, most of them women of color. The number is likely higher, given that victims are often misgendered by police or media, or their deaths not reported at all.

[RELATED: These Are the Trans People Killed in 2018]