Three weeks ago, the body of trans man F. Hilário was found on an isolated road in Paraná, Brazil. The 20-year-old was discovered deceased, with apparent head injuries, by a passerby. The location, according to local newspaper Parana, is notorious among local residents as a dumping ground for murder victims; Hilário had been reported missing a day before. br The man who found Hilário’s body called the police to report that a boy was murdered. Official reports initially described Hilário as a male murder victim, leading Parana to correctly refer to Hilário as a boy. But the newspaper explains in a note that an “expert” later informed reporters Hilário was “a girl.” The paper’s article was updated to use female pronouns, and still currently misgenders the young trans man. br News of his murder reached the U.S. through Eduarda Alice Santos, a Portuguese trans woman and reporter for Planet Transgender who translated the local news report. Without her seeking out and translating Brazilian newspapers, it’s exceedingly likely that Western media would not be aware of Hilário’s misgendering — or of his murder at all. br News of Hilário’s death comes two months after the world learned of the brutal murder of Yoshi Tsuchida in Tokyo. The 38-year-old trans man was found dead, draped in a blanket, with his head in a plastic bag and his face “skinned off with a knife,” according to Agence France-Presse. His body was reportedly found by his adopted adult daughter, herself a transgender woman, in the suburban home they shared. The pair had a possible history of domestic violence, but it remains unclear whether she is a suspect in his murder. Local media misgendered Tsuchida’s daughter while lingering sensationally on the gory details of his demise. br Prior to Hilário and Tsuchida’s deaths, the last known murder of a trans man was Evon Young on New Year’s Day, 2013. Young was a 22-year-old black Milwaukee rapper who was tortured, shot repeatedly, burned, and then thrown in a trash bin during what was likely a gang initiation ritual, according to authorities. Local media claimed Young’s murder had nothing to do with his trans status, yet a friend of the victim informed TransAdvocate that he believed Young was initially beaten, then mutilated and murdered with hateful brutality when his “female” body was discovered. br In the course of reporting this article, the world learned about the officer-involved killing of 24-year-old Kayden Clarke in Mesa, Ariz. Clarke, a white autistic trans man who’d just recently come out via a YouTube video diary, was being checked on by police after expressing suicidal intentions to a friend. Police, who fatally shot Clarke when he reportedly moved toward them with a knife, are now being accused of “excessive force.” Clarke has been widely misgendered in national press. br What — if anything — can these four murders tell us about fatal violence against trans men? What can we observe from these most recent murders? And what can we speculate about the responses to these cases? br Very little is currently known about violence against trans men as a whole; murder, as a subset of this topic, is even more shrouded in mystery. How often are trans men murdered worldwide? Are any of these cases hate crimes? What are the risk factors? Are there more murders we aren’t hearing about? How can we prevent more deaths? br While it’s impossible to draw conclusions from these four cases — which are almost certainly only a fraction of the total murders committed — that should not stop anti-violence advocates from considering the issue. The safest place to start is by simply making open-ended observations about what we do know and indicating paths for further inquiry. From that space, we can hopefully initiate a conversation that others will carry forward, informed by their own experiences and expertise.