Inset: Sam Nordquist (KGET/YouTube). Background: Patty’s Lodge Motel in Canandaigua, New York, where Sam Nordquist was tortured and killed (KARE/YouTube).
One of the seven people accused of torturing and killing a missing man in New York for months — simply because “they enjoyed it,” according to prosecutors — is also facing coercion charges for allegedly forcing two children, ages 7 and 12, to take part in hurting and treating the victim “like a dog,” officials say.
“To have two children have to participate in the beating of another human being, it’s deeply disturbing,” Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford said at a press conference Wednesday. “It has, I can speak for myself and everyone involved in this investigation, been one of the most troubling parts of this. It’s heartbreaking.”
According to prosecutors and police, Minnesota resident Sam Nordquist was lured by his online girlfriend Precious Arzuaga to the Empire State in September and taken captive at a hotel in Ontario County by Arzuaga and six others in December. The group physically and sexually assaulted Nordquist; prevented him from eating food and hyrdrating; forced him to eat feces and drink urine; and other grotesque forms of torture, according to prosecutors.
“They forced him to obey their commands, treating him like a dog,” Wolford said Wednesday. “We have a seven-year-old and a 12-year-old who are also victims. They may have been forced to participate, but their lives are forever changed by what they saw and endured there.”
Nordquist was allegedly tortured for months starting in December, but authorities are choosing to focus on a time frame between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2, which is when Nordquist succumbed to the abuse and died. Wolford on Wednesday said evidence shows that “all seven people tortured (Nordquist) and they did so because they enjoyed it.” Arzuga is charged with coercion for allegedly forcing the 7-year-old and a 12-year-old to take part.
Last month, officials said Nordquist had last stayed at Patty’s Lodge motel in Canandaigua before his death, which is where he “endured prolonged physical and psychological abuse” at the group’s hands.
Citing a felony complaint, local ABC and The CW affiliate WHAM reported that the suspects allegedly sexually assaulted Nordquist with a table leg and broomsticks and beat him with sticks, dog toys, ropes and belts until he died. They allegedly dumped his body in a field in Benton afterward, where authorities found it.
“In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated,” New York State Police Captain Kelly Swift told WHAM.
“The facts and the circumstances of this crime are beyond depraved,” said Ontario County District Attorney Jim Ritts.
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The death of Nordquist, who was a transgender man from Oakdale, Minnesota, was originally investigated as a hate crime by the New York State Division of Human Rights Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. But prosecutors say they have declined to pursue hate crime charges on account of some of Nordquist’s torturers also being members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“This case is bigger than a hate crime,” Wolford told reporters. “A hate crime would make this case about Sam’s gender or about Sam’s race and it’s so much bigger. Sam deserves to have this story told in its entirety.”
The six others who have been charged in connection to Nordquist’s death have been identified as Emily Jean Motyka, Jennifer A. Quijano, Kyle R. Sage, Patrick A. Goodwin, Kimberly L. Sochia and Thomas G. Eaves. They have all been charged with first-degree murder for taking Nordquist’s life in an “especially cruel manner with the intent to inflict torture on him before his death,” according to Wolford, who says all seven defendants know each other.
“We’ll never know the answer to why because what kind of human being could do this,” Wolford concluded. “We will never make sense of this case.”
