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Noted . Notable . Noteworthy. LGBT News & Views
Volume 23 . Number 26 May 2.2009 Printed on Recycled Paper FREE
Elevation
Church hosts
disgraced Ted
Haggard
page 15 ^
q-notes.com
IN FAYETTEVILLE
Sister says brother is victim of hate crime, police aren’t doing enough to find killer
FAYETTEVILLE — The sister of a mur
dered drag performer says police aren’t doing
all they can to find the killer of her brother,
34-year-old Jimmy Ali McCoUough.
In the early morning hours of April 14,
officers with the Fayetteville Police
Department found McCoUough dead, lying on
the edge of a roadway near a gay and lesbian
nightclub in this town that’s home to Fort
Bragg, one of the Army’s most important
bases of operation. As reported at Q-
Notes.com on April 14, it took several hours
for police to initiaUy release the identity of the
murder victim. Since then police have main
tained silence about the case, citing the “sensi
tivity of the ongoing investigation” in their
clamp down.
Known to many LGBT community mem
bers as Imaje Devera, McCoUough was a per
former at Club Emages on Swain St., located
just one street over from where McCoUough
was found in front of 119 Joseph St. Several
attempts to reach club owner Dy’Mond Cartier
have been unsuccessful, but she told Raleigh
news station WRAL that police had said
McCoUough had been stabbed and that the
case was being investigated as a hate crime.
Kathy McCoUough, Jimmy’s 27-year-old
sister, told Q-Notes ffiat she feels poUce haven’t
adequately responded to the crime.
“I do not believe they have done aU they
can,” she said. “I have emaUed and I have
Healthy you ^
A look at ^
women’s health ^
page 18 ^
caUed quite a few times. SpecificaUy, I emailed
the police chief. I’ve gotten no response.”
She says the only interaction she’s had with
poUce was when they notified her of her
r
man who cross-dressed and prostituted,” she
said. “They are not working on the case as
hard as 1 think they should be. I don’t think
they are taking every little lead and going with
it and chasing it to see if it could lead to
my brother’s kiUer. They just aren’t work
ing hard enough.”
Qub Emages wasn’t open on the night
McCoUough
was found on
the side of
Joseph St., so
it is not entire
ly clear why
McCoUough
was in the
area. However,
sources close
to the victim
have told Q-
A/bfesthathe
McCoUough performed as Imaje Devera at
Emages, formerly Club Spektrum.
brother’s death.
“They are looking at this as a young black
Jimmy Ali McCoUough,
34, was found dead
on the side of Joseph
St. in Fayetteville.
was involved in prostitution as a way to
support himself.
Sister Kathy McCoUough admits that
her brother had a hard time finding a reg
ular job, because so many people Imew of
his drag performance. In some instances,
it isn’t rare to see transgender or other
Club gender-variant persons forced into sex
work as a means of financial survival.
According to police reports avaUable
online, the Joseph St. and Bragg Blvd. areas
by Matt Comer. Q-Notes staff
are known to have an unusuaUy high crime
rate, with reports of prostitution, armed rob
beries and aggravated assaults, including one
wherein the victim was shot (although not
fataUy wounded).
But information about the events sur
rounding McCullough’s murder have remained
scarce. Police have kept a tight Ud on releasing
new information and key sources have never
returned phone caUs made by Q-Notes. Any
ideas on how or why McCoUou^ was kUl^
remains purely speculative.
Kathy McCoUough is hopeful the investiga
tion wUl turn up something. She said she
believes her brother’s death was the’result of a
hate crime, perpetuated solely because of her
brother’s drag persona.
Kathy and Jimmy didn’t grow up together
in chUdhood — she says her brother grew up
in nearby Samson County — but, nonethe
less, they’ve always been close, especiaUy
after Jimmy moved to FayetteviUe. Her three-
year-old son, she said, is too young to know
much about the death but does know his
uncle is gone.
“He knows his uncle isn’t here anymore,”
she said. “He’s at that age where he wants to
know why, but that’s reaUy the only part he
doesn’t understand.”
Kathy also has a two-year-old chUd.
She said her brother was a caring person.
see Sister on 16
NatM honors
Time Out Youth
receives award
page 13
vl/ J
f
Flashback
'2;.4e»
Eureka Springs, one
year later
page 12