Why did this happen here?
Sam’s stay in New York had turned into hell.
Court records show that torture began on New Year’s Day and lasted several weeks. Seven people, including Alzugha, took him prisoner in Room 22 and encountered a horrific pattern of abuse. Authorities say the group kicked him and beat him with sticks, dog toys, ropes, bottles, belts, canes and wooden planks. They starved him, forced him to eat feces and spit on urine and cigarettes.
They put him to his knees against the wall, bleached him and sexually assaulted him with foreign objects, court records say. Inside the room were two young children who were forced by some of the abuse, authorities said. Asked this week if the children belong to Alzhaga and if their children currently have state custody, Assistant District Attorney Walford declined to comment.
New York State Police Police Colonel Kelly Swift is the local commander overseeing the incident, calling the murder of Sam Nordquist “one of the most horrifying crimes I have ever investigated.”
All this had been going on in Room 22 for several weeks, but there appears to be no indication that the witnesses had heard of the torture. No one reported suspicious activity at Patty’s lodge, officials said this week.
The incident sparked a wave of soul quest in Canandegua, and neighbors wonder how the crime has been unaware of for so long.
Tara Morris, who lives with her husband and young children at the house next to Patty’s lodge, dozens of feet from Room 22, said she cried when she heard the news.
“We hadn’t heard anything, we hadn’t noticed anything,” said Morris, 38. “That’s part of the reason we were upset because any indication could have helped. But there was nothing.”
Parts of the area hope that Patty’s lodge will be held accountable for what happened there. However, the hotel is not under investigation due to fraud, authorities said.
Still, for many years, the hotel has been the target of complaints from residents, law enforcement officers and the Department of Social Services regarding the invasion of rodents and insects, government inspection records show.
Railyn Rogers was placed with her 3-year-old daughter in 2022 by the Department of Social Welfare at Patty’s Lodge. She still lives in the area and still passes Patty’s lodge. Details of her experience and what happened to Sam there haunt her.
“How many times did we drive there? Was this going on?” Rogers said. “It makes me feel a certain sense of guilt. It’s scary.”
Manny Patel, who is identified in city inspection records as the owner of Patty’s Lodge, declined to comment when NBC News reached him by phone. He spoke to investigators and said there was nothing more to share. “I have nothing to say about this,” he said.
Sam’s concerns grow
His family had little or no response from Sam for weeks. His sister, Kayla Nordquist, continued to send pictures of her brother’s children. She said, apart from the threat of more welfare checks, Sam has a weak spot for young children’s pictures and would usually respond violently. But this time it’s not the case. Over the next few days, the family repeatedly called Sam’s phones, and there was no response.
On February 9th, they called the New York State Police and asked for another welfare check in the 22nd room.
Police insisted that someone answered the door to the family and didn’t know who Sam was, Linda said. When the family told authorities that the explanation was unbelievable, the troopers returned to the 22nd room on the same day, this time Alzuaga met. Alzugha said she and Sam had broken up and left a few weeks ago, according to her mother, police said.
That same day, Linda and Kayla asked the troopers to submit a report of the missing person. The troopers declined, they said.
“She said I need to stop watching so many TVs, which is not a true crime episode,” Kela said.
The state police disputed their accounts. “We have taken appropriate investigative measures as we are concerned about where Mr Nordquist is,” said Crane, spokesman for the state police.
“We understand the sadness and frustration of our families and continue to be committed to a complete and thorough investigation,” Crane added.
Sam’s family alleges that he did not treat Sam as a missing person until February 10, when police submitted a missing person report to the Oakdale Police Department, a local Minnesota police officer. The report was added to the national law enforcement database and forwarded to the authorities in Canandaigua.
The family also posted online about their search – and amateur detectives and local residents jumped into the action.
Michelle Picard, who lives in Farmington, New York, said she came across a flyer for Sam on Facebook about a missing person and felt forced to help. Picard said he spent several days looking for Sam at Patty’s lodge and elsewhere, showing photos to residents.
“I don’t know what attracted me to this,” Picard, 47, said in an interview. “I don’t usually do this. I know how Kela felt. My mind just told me to do it. I want someone to do the same for me.”
Sam’s family was planning to fly to New York to do his research work, they said. Linda waited for her next salary before booking a trip to Canandegua to find her son.
“We were going to blow corners and drive up and down the street. We made a 300-copy flyer. We were going to put flyers on every door, every business. “If something is going on, or in a place where Sam couldn’t get home, then at least Sam might hear me and know me. “Mom is here. Mom is watching.”
Her opportunity never came.
The body was found and arrested
On February 13, the local government found Sam’s decayed body wrapped in plastic in the field, about 20 minutes’ drive southeast of Patty’s lodge. His body was likely dumped at the beginning of the moon, investigators said.
The next day, police announced five people, Alzhaga. Jennifer Kijano, 30; Kyle Sage, 33; Patrick Goodwin, 30; Emily Motica, 19, was arrested for his death. A few days later, two other suspects – Alzuaga’s sons Thomas Eves, 21, and Kimberly Sochia, 29, were arrested.
They are all charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, intrigue, conspiracy, and cover-up of human corpses. Four of them — Altourga, Kijano, Sage and Goodwin — have been charged with aggravated sexual abuse. Alzugha is also faced with two compulsory charges that allegedly forced his children to participate in the attack.
Authorities have not revealed why they believe this particular group will come together to torture and kill. They said some were romantically involved, others knew each other from the area. Records show that Goodwin, a registered sex offender, was staying in Room 16 at Patty’s lodge at the time of his arrest. Sage, who lived nearby with him, was both on parole after serving in prison time. Goodwin is a wise man who was convicted of sexual abuse and sexual conduct against a child and spreads indecent material to minors.
Pouring support
In death, Sam finally receives what he has found to travel to: a pour of love.
For weeks, friends, family and strangers who sympathized with his tragic story have joined the wave of online posts seeking justice in memory of him. LGBTQ supporters served as vigilance and protest in his honor.
Supporters have also publicly questioned why the incident is not considered a hate crime. Some compared Sam to 21-year-old Matthew Shepherd, a gay man who was beaten, tied to a fence and died in 1998.
Transgender people are very likely to face violence, particularly males, according to federal data and a 2024 survey published in the American Medical Association Journal.
However, in the death the accused was not charged with a hate crime. Investigators in New York opposed the criticism. Prosecutor Walford said Sam’s murder was charged with murder in the first degree, the most serious crime under New York law, and was punished for life in a prison without parole. (New York does not have a death penalty.)
“Hate crimes will take this responsibility for Sam’s gender and Sam’s race. That’s much greater,” Walford said. “It’s illicit to Sam to limit us to hate crimes. Sam deserves to have him tell the story in full.”
She said the investigation would continue. The date for the next court appearance of the seven defendants has not yet been set.
The Nordquist family traveled to New York last month to meet with investigators and receive his body.
They returned him to Minnesota, where he lay down for him to rest.
At Patty’s lodge, the child’s bicycle was removed, leaning outside room 22. The red roses placed in the entrance are gone. The Rainbow Pride flag and Puerto Rican flag adorned with the windows are no longer hanging down there.
They were replaced by a set of white blinds in Stark.
