Calls for answers continue over drag icon Heklina’s death nearly three years on: ‘The only way to get justice for our community is to demand it publicly’ (EXCLUSIVE)
“If Heklina were a cisgender woman, you can be sure every lead would have been chased up,” claims Drag Race UK star Crystal, a close friend of Heklina's
By Aaron Sugg
Nearly three years after Heklina was found dead at a flat in Soho, London, friends are demanding answers as the cause of the US drag performer’s death remains unknown.
As of January 2026, the Metropolitan Police are yet to announce how Heklina died on 3 April 2023, having previously described the death as “unexpected”.
Per the Guardian, Heklina’s body was discovered by her close friend and collaborator of 27 years Peaches Christ. Peaches found Heklina “on the floor, in drag, in a very unusual position,” with drugs later discovered in her system.
As investigations remain ongoing, friends and fans of the late drag performer have criticised the Met for what they describe as a “homophobia” bias.
Speaking exclusively to Attitude, Canadian-British drag artist Crystal, a close friend of Heklina’s, spoke about the police force and its approach to the investigation.
“The whole affair has been handled about as badly as you can imagine” – Crystal on the Metropolitan Police investigation into Heklina’s death
“The whole thing is frustrating,” she said. “From the failures in investigating, to the lack of transparency with next of kin, to the necessity of going to the media to get progress.”
She added: “The whole affair has been handled about as badly as you can imagine.”
In 2025, friends and fans gathered outside Scotland Yard’s headquarters to protest against the force’s handling of the case. Crystal was among those in attendance.
More than 100 people joined the demonstration, including Peaches, Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic, and former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants, calling on the Met to take action.
“I’d say it confirmed a lot of my suspicions about how bias shapes our institutions” – Crystal claiming homophobic bias in the Met
“I’d say it confirmed a lot of my suspicions about how bias shapes our institutions,” Crystal said. “The Casey Review found the Met to be institutionally homophobic, and these are the kinds of outcomes that such bias creates.”
The Casey Review, published in March 2023 by Baroness Casey, concluded that the Met is riddled with “institutional racism, sexism, and homophobia.”
Crystal added: “Drag queens, trans people, gay men – I think we’re all lumped into a category in the eyes of officers at the Met.
“If Heklina were a cisgender woman, you can be sure every lead would have been chased up,” the drag artist claimed.
“If drugs are involved when one of us dies, it’s all too easy for them to call the case closed” Crystal on Heklina being found with fatal levels of drugs in her system
After Heklina’s death, it emerged that she had arranged to meet men for anonymous hook-ups. She was in London at the time to perform her show Mommie Queerest with Peaches at the Soho Theatre, staying nearby in Soho Square.
Toxicology reports identified fatal levels of GHB and methamphetamine in her body, substances often associated with chemsex. However, no official cause of death has been confirmed and an inquest has yet to take place.
Further questions were raised when CCTV footage, released nearly two years after her death, showed three men leaving the flat on the night Heklina died. The men have not been identified and no charges have been brought.
“If drugs are involved when one of us dies, it’s all too easy for them to call the case closed,” said Crystal.
The concerns around the case parrallel those of Ed Cornes, a 19-year-old gay student who was found dead in the basement of a London hotel in October 2021.
Police initially treated his death as a potential murder before downgrading it to an unexplained death days later. Toxicology reports showed high levels of GHB in his system, and two men he had met that night were arrested on suspicion of murder but later released without charge.
Cornes’ mother has publicly called for her son’s death to be re-examined, telling ITV News that the Met “focused on him being gay and whether he took drugs.”
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