Lauren Heike, a 29-year-old beauty technician, was killed in 2023 on a community hiking trail in Phoenix. On October 6, 2026, the New York Post reported that Zion Teasley, 25, pleaded guilty to her murder. The plea agreement takes the death penalty off the table. He will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Neighbors found Heike dead at the foot of a barbed wire fence, off the trail. She had 15 stab wounds.
Teasley is a trans-identified male. The New York Post described him as a male who was “transitioning to live as a trans woman.”
A 400-page police report obtained by ABC 15 last year, and cited by the New York Post, includes Teasley’s diary. He wrote that he was “battling with my gender identity and sexuality,” in conflict with his Christian faith. He said he was depressed by seeing “beautiful” women because he was stuck being “a man.”
In his first police interview, Teasley denied seeing Heike anywhere but the news. He then told officers, “That’s what I would want to look like.”
Surveillance footage showed him stalking Heike, a stranger, chasing her down, killing her with a pocket knife, and jumping a fence to escape. DNA on Heike’s shoes matched Teasley. He was on probation after serving a year in prison for armed robbery and other offenses. Police arrested him days later at his home, about a mile from the trail.
His boss told police he had recently been fired for being “aggressive” toward female employees, and that he had stolen clothing matching what the killer wore.
Teasley entered U.S. Marine Corps recruit training in March 2019 and left three months later, before completing boot camp.
In a statement to ABC 15, reported by the New York Post, Heike’s family said, in part: “After 3½ incredibly long and painful years, our family supports the State’s decision to enter into a plea agreement in Lauren’s case. This means we will not have to endure a trial or sit in a courtroom and hear every painful detail of the crime that took Lauren from us.” The family also said: “While no sentence will ever bring Lauren back, we are relieved knowing that he will never be released,” and, “He will never again have the opportunity to harm another person or cause another family to experience the unimaginable grief and trauma that ours has endured.”
He told police that Heike was “what I would want to look like.” In court, his attorney referred to him as “she.”
Primary source
- New York Post — Patrick Reilly, Oct. 6, 2026, 8:01 a.m. ET (“Trans killer blames transition for stabbing hiker 15 times on trail: Victim was ‘what I want to look like’”). The Post cites ABC 15 for the police report and the family’s statement.
- New York Post on X, Oct. 6, 2026