3 hours ago
When the well-known American drag artist Heklina was found dead in a London flat, her family, friends and fans were desperate for answers.
Only now, almost two years later, have police released CCTV of three men who were at the 55-year-old’s flat on the night she died.
Those close to Heklina, whose real name was Steven Grygelko, want to know why detectives have taken so long to issue an appeal as they remain in the dark about the cause of death.
Grygelko’s body was found at a flat in Soho, central London, on 3 April 2023, by a friend and fellow drag performer Joshua Grannell, known as Peaches Christ. Grannell said he was “furious” the Metropolitan police did not release the CCTV sooner and that the force’s handling of the case smacked of homophobia.
“I think it’s caused them to not prioritise it at all and just ignore it. We’re just not important enough to get their attention,” the artist said.
“They’re inept, and now I am very comfortable saying it’s impossible for me to not cry homophobia at this point, which I was reluctant to do for so long, giving them the benefit of the doubt … How can they not tell us how it is she died for this period of time?”
Grygelko, who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, cofounded the legendary San Francisco drag night Trannyshack in 1996 and performed around the world.
Grygelko and Grannell had been in London in April 2023 to perform in Mommie Queerest, a parody of the 1981 film Mommie Dearest, which was set for a two-week run at Soho theatre.
Grannell suspected something was wrong after returning to their rented flat in Soho Square on the morning of 3 April to find their front door was unlocked and a noisy fan connected to the bathroom light was on.
Grannell found Grygelko in the living room, recalling: “She’s in full drag on the floor, in a very unusual position, so unusual that it’s one of the images that haunts me the most. She’s on her knees. Her face is on the floor and her hands are on either side of her head.”
Typically drag artists use female pronouns for their drag persona.
Grygelko’s death is being treated as unexpected and remains under investigation while officers liaise with the coroner, the Met said last Friday.
Grannell said the past 21 months had been “nightmarish” as he continued trying to seek answers about what happened to Grygelko, with his emails to the Met sometimes going unanswered for months. He also provided a pen portrait about Grygelko to Westminster coroner’s court but has no idea when an inquest will take place.
Grannell said: “The first few months after it happened, I couldn’t even push up my eyes without seeing her dead face and I had to go to therapy. And all of this is very kind of retraumatising, I feel like I’m living back in that nightmare yet again and I don’t know how they [the police] expect the nightmare for any of us to go away.
“She had fans. She had close friends. Your job is to give us answers. You’ve given us nothing, and to find out all this time later there’s something like CCTV footage is both frustrating as hell, but also gratifying, because it’s like, well, of course there is and you’re just completely being wilfully inept.”
Nancy French, a friend of Grygelko and the executor of the artist’s estate, echoed Grannell’s concerns. “I am Heklina’s next of kin with the London police but have never received a cause of death, autopsy report, or final death certificate.
“This CCTV footage should have been released 21 months ago. Releasing it now just proves their ineptitude and mismanagement that we’ve been dealing with for almost two years,” she said in a statement from California.
A Met police spokesperson said detectives carried out a number of inquiries and continued to work closely with the coroner to establish what happened on the night of Grygelko’s death.
“This lengthy investigation has been unable to identify who was at the flat at the time, and detectives are now appealing for the public’s help, while also asking that the three men who were captured in the CCTV to come forward to assist the investigation,” they said.
“Due to the ongoing investigative work into the circumstances of Steven’s death, we are not disclosing publicly the cause of death at this time.”
