Remembering Our Dead

Kaaseem Adalla Juanda

Kaaseem's body was found with a gunshot wound to the back of the head near a rest stop on Interstate 29 outside of Glenwood, Iowa.

She was a 60 year old post-operative trans woman who had been living in Kansas City, Kansas but had kept her birth name.

There was initially some suspicion that her death was a suicide, but additional details caused police to suspect a homicide.

Months have passed and unanswered questions still linger in the case of a woman who was found dead near a rest stop on Interstate 29 near Glenwood.

Kaaseem Adalla Juanda, 60, of Kansas City, was found underneath a tree about 100 yards from the main building on Oct. 17 with a single gunshot wound to the head. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy did not rule whether the incident was a homicide or a suicide and authorities have still not determined what happened. No suicide note was found.

An unregistered gun was recovered underneath Juanda's body, but several tests performed on the weapon have not been able to determine who fired it. Although no clip was found in the gun, most guns will still fire without one.

"If there's a round in the chamber, the gun will still fire. You can release the magazine, but if the round is still in the chamber, the gun will fire," said Chief Deputy Jim Matthai of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Department.

Investigating officers said Juanda had spent the majority of [her] life as a man before undergoing sexual reassignment surgery within the last few years while keeping the same name. According to Juanda's son, it may have been a motive for homicide. Derrick Juanda said his dad was involved with someone at the time of his death.

"My theory is that maybe this guy my dad was with found out my father used to be a man, so he put a hit on my father," Derrick said. "The gunshot was towards the back of [her] head, execution style." Authorities have not been able to locate the Saudi Arabian man Juanda was dating.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-nonpareil-murder-of-transgende/143725130/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-murder-of-kaaseem-ada/143725000/

https://web.archive.org/web/20111216182004/http://tgdor.org:80/list.shtml

Report added: 21 Sep 2025

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