On Christmas Eve, LGBT community member Christine Moyer was stabbed to death in the South of Market neighborhood at 5:38 p.m. blocks from her home, according to authorities.
Moyer, who went by "Chris," was a "beautiful soul," her friend of 17 years, Shona Levana Gochenaur, told the Bay Area Reporter. Gochenaur confirmed that Moyer identified as LGBT and dated women.
Police responded to the report of a person down on Jessie Street between Sixth and Mint streets December 24. San Francisco Fire Department paramedics responded and declared Moyer deceased at the scene, according to a San Francisco Police Department news release.
Less than eight hours later, around 12:40 a.m. Christmas Day, another unidentified woman, 46, was stabbed a few blocks from where Moyer was killed. Authorities responded, and she was taken to the hospital with life threatening injuries. There was a witness to this stabbing.
Michael Jacobs, 27, was detained at the scene and later arrested after being identified as the suspect in the later stabbing. He was charged with attempted murder for the second incident. Police are investigating whether the two cases are connected.
Jacobs, who police describe as a transient, has not been charged in Moyer's case.
A source from the San Francisco District Attorney's office said Jacobs has not been arraigned, but likely will be Wednesday, January 9, which was listed as his next court date.
Moyer, originally from Oklahoma, was retired and lived at the Rose Hotel on Sixth Street, less than a mile from where she was murdered. She was an active advocate for compassionate cannabis programs and animal rights.
"It's just devastating and it's straight-up scary," said Gochenaur, who's founder of Axis of Love San Francisco, a cannabis patient advocacy group, which Moyer was involved with. Gochenaur said she first heard the news when fellow patients started to call her and ask if the Christine Moyer they were reading about was their friend they knew as Chris.
Gochenaur described Moyer as "a gentle and kind soul," and "easy to talk to." The two became close friends through their involvement with Axis of Love SF.
"She was a speaker at City Hall on behalf of other LGBT poor patients in need of access to cannabis throughout the years," Gochenaur, who identifies as bisexual, said.
Moyer also enjoyed time with her two cats and had a degree in library sciences, according to Gochenaur. Axis of Love SF hosted a celebration of life for Moyer January 8, where friends shared their memories.
Gochenaur said Moyer did not have children and has a brother who is flying into San Francisco from Oklahoma to organize her formal memorial service this week.