Sam Nordquist Torture and Murder

Sam Nordquist suspects charged with first-degree murder, children allegedly forced into torture

"They physically restrained him, treated him like a dog, covered his face with towels and fabric, used duct tape on him, and poured bleach on him."

www.democratandchronicle.com

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Just in case it's a paywall, here's the article:

Sam Nordquist suspects charged with first-degree murder, children allegedly forced into torture​

Madison Scott
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle


Seven people were charged with first-degree murder in the death and torture of Sam Nordquist.

• Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford said that two children, a 7-year-old and 12-year-old, were forced to participate in the alleged torture.

A grand jury has indicted seven individuals on first-degree murder charges in connection with the torture and death of Sam Nordquist.

The indictment includes 11 charges: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree conspiracy, first-degree aggravated sexual abuse, concealment of a human corpse, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford noted the rarity of a first-degree murder charge in New York, emphasizing that it requires proving all seven defendants tortured Nordquist and did so for their own enjoyment. Before the state abolished the death penalty, this case would have been eligible for capital punishment, she added.

Who has been charged in the death of Sam Nordquist?​

• Precious Arzuaga, 38
• Jennifer Quijano, 30
• Kyle Sage, 33
• Patrick Goodwin, 30
• Emily Motyka, 19
• Kimberly L. Sochia, 29
• Thomas Eaves, 19

Wolford said that between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2, the seven individuals kidnapped Nordquist, 24, from Minnesota, and held him captive in Room 22 at Patty's Lodge in Canandaigua, preventing him from leaving. During that month, Nordquist was subjected to extreme abuse, including physical and sexual assault, forced consumption of feces and urine, and being made to obey commands.

Wolford said investigators believe Nordquist initially traveled to New York voluntarily, but by Jan. 1, he was no longer free to leave, marking the beginning of the alleged torture.

"They physically restrained him, treated him like a dog, covered his face with towels and fabric, used duct tape on him, and poured bleach on him," Wolford said.

Children forced to take part in torture, assistant district attorney says​

Precious Arzuaga was also charged with two counts of first-degree coercion for allegedly forcing a seven-year-old and a 12-year-old to participate in the torture, Wolford said.

"We have a seven-year-old and a 12-year-old who are also victims," Wolford said. "They may have been forced to participate, but their lives are forever changed by what they saw and endured. We are here, not just for Sam, but to seek justice for those two children as well."

Investigators did not disclose Arzuaga’s relationship to the two children.

Was Sam Nordquist's killing a hate crime?​

Wolford said the crime was not a hate crime.

"A hate crime would make this charge about Sam's gender or race, but this case is so much bigger," she said. "Sam deserves to have his story told in full. He was beaten, assaulted, sexually abused, starved, and held captive. We cannot reduce this to a hate crime charge alone."

New York Penal Law defines a "hate crime" as an offense committed, at least in part, due to the victim’s race, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected status.

Family's response​

Nordquist's family, Wolford said, is experiencing a range of emotions but is relieved to see progress in the case.

"They've been through so much these past weeks," she said. "They're hoping this is the next step in their healing process."

The seven defendants are scheduled to appear in county court for arraignment.

— Madison Scott is a journalist with the Democrat and Chronicle who edited our Weld Street Project and also did reporting for it. She has an interest in how the system helps or doesn't help families with missing loved ones. She can be reached at MDScott@gannett.com.

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[Tresir]

I found an article that has the mugshots of all 7 POS's just so i could post them here.

Seven people charged in torture, killing of Sam Nordquist indicted

The seven people charged in the torture and killing of Sam Nordquist have all been indicted on first-degree murder.

www.kttc.com

The indictment, made public Wednesday, includes coercion charges for one of the suspects after investigators say she forced two children, 7 and 12, to engage in the torture.

Suspects in Nordquist murder(NBC)
Hate crime charges were not included in the indictment.

The district attorney said the case is “bigger” than a hate crime.

“It’s a rare circumstance where we stand before you and charge this subdivision of murder in the first degree, where it alleges that somebody was tortured to death. It specifically requires that we prove that all seven defendants tortured, Sam Nordquist, and that they did so because they enjoyed it. That’s what murder in the first-degree is,” said Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford.

Nordquist, a native of Red Wing, Minnesota and had lived previously in Oakdale, went missing after moving to New York to be with an online girlfriend late last year.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

This happened about thirty miles from where I live.

 

[Kimster]

I don’t understand how human beings can torture other human beings! Or any other living creature, for that matter. It’s beyond my comprehension.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

I don’t understand how human beings can torture other human beings! Or any other living creature, for that matter. It’s beyond my comprehension.

This trial will be interesting, hopefully they'll allow cameras in the courtroom.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

DISTURBING DETAILS. But that's going to be pretty much everything coming out about Sam's murder unfortunately.

Kids, ages 7 and 12, forced to engage in 'depraved' torture of missing man: DA

One of the people accused of torturing and killing a missing man in New York simply because "they enjoyed it" is also facing coercion charges for allegedly forcing two children to take part.

lawandcrime.com

‘Forever changed by what they saw’: Kids, ages 7 and 12, forced to engage in ‘depraved’ torture of missing man held captive for months, cops say​

One of the seven people accused of torturing and killing a missing man in New York for months — simply because “they enjoyed it,” according to prosecutors — is also facing coercion charges for allegedly forcing two children, ages 7 and 12, to take part in hurting and treating the victim “like a dog,” officials say.

“To have two children have to participate in the beating of another human being, it’s deeply disturbing,” Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford said at a press conference Wednesday. “It has, I can speak for myself and everyone involved in this investigation, been one of the most troubling parts of this. It’s heartbreaking.”

According to prosecutors and police, Minnesota resident Sam Nordquist was lured by his online girlfriend Precious Arzuaga to the Empire State in September and taken captive at a hotel in Ontario County by Arzuaga and six others in December. The group physically and sexually assaulted Nordquist; prevented him from eating food and hyrdrating; forced him to eat feces and drink urine; and other grotesque forms of torture, according to prosecutors.

“They forced him to obey their commands, treating him like a dog,” Wolford said Wednesday. “We have a seven-year-old and a 12-year-old who are also victims. They may have been forced to participate, but their lives are forever changed by what they saw and endured there.”

Nordquist was allegedly tortured for months starting in December, but authorities are choosing to focus on a time frame between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2, which is when Nordquist succumbed to the abuse and died. Wolford on Wednesday said evidence shows that “all seven people tortured (Nordquist) and they did so because they enjoyed it.” Arzuga is charged with coercion for allegedly forcing the 7-year-old and a 12-year-old to take part.

Last month, officials said Nordquist had last stayed at Patty’s Lodge motel in Canandaigua before his death, which is where he “endured prolonged physical and psychological abuse” at the group’s hands.

Citing a felony complaint, local ABC and The CW affiliate WHAM reported that the suspects allegedly sexually assaulted Nordquist with a table leg and broomsticks and beat him with sticks, dog toys, ropes and belts until he died. They allegedly dumped his body in a field in Benton afterward, where authorities found it.

“In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated,” New York State Police Captain Kelly Swift told WHAM.

“The facts and the circumstances of this crime are beyond depraved,” said Ontario County District Attorney Jim Ritts.

The death of Nordquist, who was a transgender man from Oakdale, Minnesota, was originally investigated as a hate crime by the New York State Division of Human Rights Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. But prosecutors say they have declined to pursue hate crime charges on account of some of Nordquist’s torturers also being members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“This case is bigger than a hate crime,” Wolford told reporters. “A hate crime would make this case about Sam’s gender or about Sam’s race and it’s so much bigger. Sam deserves to have this story told in its entirety.”

The six others who have been charged in connection to Nordquist’s death have been identified as Emily Jean Motyka, Jennifer A. Quijano, Kyle R. Sage, Patrick A. Goodwin, Kimberly L. Sochia and Thomas G. Eaves. They have all been charged with first-degree murder for taking Nordquist’s life in an “especially cruel manner with the intent to inflict torture on him before his death,” according to Wolford, who says all seven defendants know each other.

“We’ll never know the answer to why because what kind of human being could do this,” Wolford concluded. “We will never make sense of this case.”

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

A LOT of details here. Way to much to copy.

What happened in Room 22?

For a month, seven people held Sam Nordquist captive in a small hotel room, torturing him to death, authorities say. How did it go on in secret?

www.nbcnews.com

What happened in Room 22?​

For a month, seven people held Sam Nordquist captive in a small hotel room, torturing him to death, authorities say. How did it go on in secret?

 

[Guess Who]

I'm glad they are also accounting for what those kids endured and their circumstances of how they were involved.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

The trap of lies, sex and cruelty that killed Sam Nordquist: ‘We went too far this time’

An enticing world concocted for TikTok hid something sinister.

www.syracuse.com

The trap of lies, sex and cruelty that killed Sam Nordquist: ‘We went too far this time’​

Sam Nordquist wanted love. He wanted a family. He thought he found it on TikTok.

He announced in a video last fall that he’d finally met his other half. The video, captioned Mrs. and Mr. Nordquist, was posted Sept. 1. Photos of Nordquist scroll on the right. Pictures of Precious Arzuaga, his Mrs., scrolled on the left.

Arzuaga, 14 years his senior and 1,000 miles away in a tiny Finger Lakes town, did the same with Nordquist on her Facebook page, adding his last name to hers.

The two had not met in person. They knew each other online for about a month.

That was all it took.

Nordquist, a 24-year-old trans man from the outskirts of Minneapolis, flew to New York state to meet Arzuaga for the first time Sept. 28.

He thought he was leaving on a vacation to meet the love he’d been aching for. A woman who accepted him as he was. Kids he could spoil.

And Arzuaga seemed to offer the best kind of love: an unconditional shower of praise.

But it was all a lie. She was a predator. Her bait: the promise of love.

Arzuaga used it to reel Nordquist, freshly heartbroken, into a warped world of manipulation and abuse that she had been building for decades.

This is a love story of the worst kind. Here, Arzuaga weaponized the prospect of love.

She had practice. She used her version of affection to connect and control a legion of castoffs: a convicted sex offender, a mentally challenged woman who had been kept locked in a basement as a child, and her own adult son.

Together, they abused Nordquist in unspeakable ways, police say. Arzuaga also has been charged with forcing her young children to help.

A room in a rural motel that Nordquist thought would be filled with love became the place where he was tortured to death by the very woman who promised him her heart.

Arzuaga and six others have been charged with first-degree murder in the torture and killing of Nordquist at Patty’s Lodge in Canandaigua. Lifelong prosecutors and police investigators said it was the most horrific crime they had ever seen.

Exactly what channeled all of this rage and violence against Nordquist is not yet clear.

But Arzuaga’s former friends and lovers offer parallel tales with a singular takeaway: You cannot leave her. And if you do, there is hell to pay.

She has stabbed and choked lovers who tried to leave, they say. She has destroyed their lives after they left, threatening their new lovers.

She preys on people who seem weak, cast off or broken by something, former friends and lovers said. Then she makes them hers – to use. They become her child care, her piggy bank, her housing, her Uber, her sex slave.

Syracuse.com interviewed more than a dozen people who knew Arzuaga and Nordquist. We reviewed court records, criminal histories and social media accounts to unravel the mystery of why something so horrific happened in the picturesque peace of the Finger Lakes.

Not everything was pretty here. There are pockets of deep, generational poverty and drug abuse in communities where services can be hard to come by.

That was Arzuaga’s world. She went from a trailer with no running water in the kitchen and holes in the floor to a series of hotel rooms paid for by social services, former friends and exes said.

She went from being abused as a child to an abuser as an adult, and easily found new people to manipulate in the chaos of cheap hotel life. She learned to overwhelm people with affection, then pull it away just as dramatically. Then the abuse started. A series of her ex-lovers described the pattern to Syracuse.com.

In recent years, with TikTok as her engine, Arzuaga’s reach and speed expanded exponentially.

Powered by algorithms and hashtags, Arzuaga found Nordquist, a young man who had been let down by love.

His last girlfriend convinced him to come to Florida for her and then shattered his heart.

He had no idea how much worse things would get.


MUCH MORE AT LINK

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

'We need to get justice': 7 suspects accused in Sam Nordquist's murder plead not guilty

The suspects entered not-guilty pleas in March to several charges, including murder.

13wham.com

'We need to get justice': 7 suspects accused in Sam Nordquist's murder appear in court
Seven individuals accused of murder for the death of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota, appeared Thursday in Ontario County Court for motion arguments.


The accused, Precious Arzuaga, Jennifer Quijano, Kyle Sage, Patrick Goodwin, Emily Motyka, Kimberly Sochia and Thomas Eaves, appeared before Judge Kristina Karle.

The courtroom was packed as defense attorneys made several motion arguments, including tossing the indictment, splitting up the case, switching counties and issues with discovery. Multiple attorneys on both sides stated that none of them have had a case as complex as this one.


In court, attorneys for the defendants filed several motions, including one to dismiss the indictment due to a defective grand jury presentation.

One of the prosecutors on the case, Assistant District Attorney Victoria Porter, said the argument was expected.

"Like the court said, it's premature," Porter said. "We have to determine first if we can use the statements that were elicited from the defendants and then determine if and how we would separate the case."

Arzuaga's attorney filed a motion to switch the case to another county, because of concerns relating to securing an impartial jury. Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford countered that argument and said the motion has to be made to the appellate court.


Additionally, Eaves' attorney requested discovery materials, including video from the Ontario County Jail of the defendants engaging in conversation, as well as jail phone calls.

Many of the defense attorneys said they have not received all of the discovery from the prosecution. Porter said it was agreed on both sides that more time was needed to process discovery.

"The discovery in this case is voluminous," Porter said. "There's many things outstanding, this is an active police investigation, there are things being created, even as we speak."

Sage's attorney brought up concerns to the court, and claimed calls with his client at the jail are being recorded and listened to.

Porter said the prosecution was not in possession of those calls, and said she spoke with a jail sergeant after court Thursday to confirm that they were not listening to any conversations.

"The lead that was referenced in court today about listening to their conversations was actually that a call was placed and how many seconds it was, not the content of the call because it's not recorded," Porter explained. "(It's) a little confusing, but of course, because that was brought up today, I will contact the New York State Police and confirm that they are not listening to those calls."

Karle denied requests for cameras in the courtroom and stated she would review the grand jury minutes before submitting a written decision. Hearings for the suspects are scheduled for September.

The defense attorneys did not comment after court Thursday.

 

[GrandmaBear]

This case is sooo disturbing. I'm a big believer in all being shared but I honestly don't want to see it all. The basics posted alone are far more than enough to know how bad and beyond this is.

I'm not victim blaming but people need to be helped to not be naive. IF it can be done.

I will never understand evil like this but they clearly enjoyed it and knew what they were doing to this poor man. Whether these kids were manipulated or not, they are not normal and need some very serious help at minimum. SHE needs to NEVER be free.

 

[Tresir]

'We need to get justice': 7 suspects accused in Sam Nordquist's murder plead not guilty

The suspects entered not-guilty pleas in March to several charges, including murder.

13wham.com

'We need to get justice': 7 suspects accused in Sam Nordquist's murder appear in court
Seven individuals accused of murder for the death of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota, appeared Thursday in Ontario County Court for motion arguments.


The accused, Precious Arzuaga, Jennifer Quijano, Kyle Sage, Patrick Goodwin, Emily Motyka, Kimberly Sochia and Thomas Eaves, appeared before Judge Kristina Karle.

The courtroom was packed as defense attorneys made several motion arguments, including tossing the indictment, splitting up the case, switching counties and issues with discovery. Multiple attorneys on both sides stated that none of them have had a case as complex as this one.


In court, attorneys for the defendants filed several motions, including one to dismiss the indictment due to a defective grand jury presentation.

One of the prosecutors on the case, Assistant District Attorney Victoria Porter, said the argument was expected.

"Like the court said, it's premature," Porter said. "We have to determine first if we can use the statements that were elicited from the defendants and then determine if and how we would separate the case."

Arzuaga's attorney filed a motion to switch the case to another county, because of concerns relating to securing an impartial jury. Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford countered that argument and said the motion has to be made to the appellate court.


Additionally, Eaves' attorney requested discovery materials, including video from the Ontario County Jail of the defendants engaging in conversation, as well as jail phone calls.

Many of the defense attorneys said they have not received all of the discovery from the prosecution. Porter said it was agreed on both sides that more time was needed to process discovery.

"The discovery in this case is voluminous," Porter said. "There's many things outstanding, this is an active police investigation, there are things being created, even as we speak."

Sage's attorney brought up concerns to the court, and claimed calls with his client at the jail are being recorded and listened to.

Porter said the prosecution was not in possession of those calls, and said she spoke with a jail sergeant after court Thursday to confirm that they were not listening to any conversations.

"The lead that was referenced in court today about listening to their conversations was actually that a call was placed and how many seconds it was, not the content of the call because it's not recorded," Porter explained. "(It's) a little confusing, but of course, because that was brought up today, I will contact the New York State Police and confirm that they are not listening to those calls."

Karle denied requests for cameras in the courtroom and stated she would review the grand jury minutes before submitting a written decision. Hearings for the suspects are scheduled for September.

The defense attorneys did not comment after court Thursday.

Hopefully they will get justice with life imprisonment.

This listening to phone calls - didn't we learn about this in the Delphi case with RA? All his calls were recorded and listened to by LE and the prison mental health advocate too, so there is no right for privacy regarding jail telephone calls IMO. Even if the lawyer was visiting in person, wouldn't they still be recorded and maybe even have a prison guard present too?

 

[GrandmaBear]

Hopefully they will get justice with life imprisonment.

This listening to phone calls - didn't we learn about this in the Delphi case with RA? All his calls were recorded and listened to by LE and the prison mental health advocate too, so there is no right for privacy regarding jail telephone calls IMO. Even if the lawyer was visiting in person, wouldn't they still be recorded and maybe even have a prison guard present too?

Generally they have to provide privacy as to the conversation with the lawyer. However, like if a lawyer calls and does not use a pre set up established private line that is their problem. That was recently seen in something, I think it might have been the Adelson case. Not sure which one but that's my thought.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Woman charged in murder of Sam Nordquist beat another inmate in jail, deputies say

Jennifer Quijano was one of the seven charged in the torture and killing of 24-year-old Sam Nordquist in February.

www.syracuse.com

Woman charged in murder of Sam Nordquist beat another inmate in jail, deputies say​

One of the seven people charged in the murder of Sam Nordquist in Ontario County beat up another inmate in the jail, deputies said.

Jennifer A. Quijano, who often goes by the nickname “Brooklyn,” was charged Tuesday with second degree assault at the Ontario County Jail in Hopewell, according to Emily Mastellar, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

While incarcerated in the jail around 5:55 p.m. on July 31, Quijano hit another inmate in the face and head several times causing her physical injury, Mastellar said.

Quijano was arraigned at CAP Court on the assault charge and remains incarcerated at the jail.


The next hearing for the murder of Nordquist will be held on Sept. 2 at the Ontario County Courthouse in Canandaigua.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Nordquist case back in court

CANANDAIGUA — The seven people who are accused of torturing and killing Sam Nordquist were back in Ontario County Court Tuesday for pretrial hearings.

www.fltimes.com

Nordquist case back in court​

The seven people who are accused of torturing and killing Sam Nordquist were back in Ontario County Court Tuesday for pretrial hearings.

Testimony and a review of video evidence was expected. The first witnesses called in the first case, against Precious Arzuaga, 38, were State Police officers who were involved in the investigation.

All of the hearings for the inmates were expected to be held individually.

The last time the defendants were together in court was in May. At that time, Judge Kristina “Kitty” Karle denied most of the motions brought by their attorneys in the case that turned from a missing-person matter to murder when Nordquist’s body was discovered in February in a field in the Yates County town of Benton. Those motions involved change of venue and other procedural matters.

The defendants are accused of torturing and killing Nordquist at a residential motel in Hopewell for more than a month. Nordquist had traveled to the Finger Lakes area from his home in Minnesota to pursue a romance with defendant Precious Arzuaga.

The defendants — Arzuaga; Emily Motyka, 19; Jennifer Quijano, 30; Kimberly Sochia, 29; Thomas Eaves, 21; Patrick Goodwin, 30; and Kyle Sage, 33 — are charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree conspiracy, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Additionally, Arzuaga, Quijano, Goodwin, and Sage were charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault.

Arzuaga also faces two counts of first-degree coercion, and Arzuaga, Quijano, Sage, and Sochia were charged with concealing a human corpse.

As in the previous court appearance for motions, each defendant’s attorney was expected to argue separately Tuesday, and the court proceeding was expected to last all day.

 

[Tresir]

Police had to break down door when they arrested Sam Nordquist’s girlfriend for his brutal death

More details around Precious Arzuaga's arrest for Sam Nordquist's murder came out today during a pre-trial hearing in Ontario County.

www.syracuse.com

Police had to break down door when they arrested Sam Nordquist’s girlfriend for his brutal death​

• Updated: Sep. 02, 2025, 9:14 p.m.
• |Published: Sep. 02, 2025, 7:16 p.m.

Precious Arzuaga walks into her hearing for the murder of Sam Nordquist at the Ontario County Courthouse on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com)N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com
By

• Greta Stuckey | gstuckey@syracuse.com

Canandaigua, N.Y. — State Police broke down the front door of a Geneva home in February as they moved in to arrest Precious Arzuaga, one of seven suspects accused in the killing of 24-year-old Sam Nordquist.
State police Investigator Brian Hotchkiss described the scene today during a pre-trial hearing in Nordquist’s murder case in Ontario County Court. Arzuaga, the main suspect, was arrested at her mother’s house.
Hotchkiss said he found Arzuaga sitting on a mattress on the floor in the front room of the house after they broke the door down. Hotchkiss had been there the day before to interview Arzuaga and several others about Nordquist.
Then, it was a missing person’s case.
But it became a murder case the next day, when Nordquist’s remains were found in a Yates County field.
Nordquist, a transgender man, came to New York for a relationship with Arzuaga but was tortured for more than a month and then brutally killed, prosecutors said.
During the hearing, Hotchkiss said he first visited Arzuaga at the home of her mother, Shirley Lee Morales, on Feb. 12. During that visit, Nordquist was still thought to be missing.
A day later, investigators returned with a larger team and a search warrant to arrest her on murder charges.
Hotchkiss testified that five people were already in custody when Arzuaga was arrested. He said there were so many people being held in the case that they had begun to run out of room at the barracks. Arzuaga had to be kept in an interview room.
When Arzuaga was transferred to the jail, she began to show signs of having a mental health crisis, two Ontario County jail corrections officers testified. Both said that in the days following Arzuaga’s arrest, she was seen crying and pacing in her cell.
When the officers asked her if she was OK, she shared with them some details about her involvement in Nordquist’s death. Those exact details were not revealed during the hearing. But prosecutors plan to use those statements; defense attorneys are trying to have them thrown out.

Kimberly L. Sochia, 29, of Canandaigua, walks out of court for the first degree murder hearing for the murder of Sam Nordquist at the Ontario County Courthouse on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com)N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com
Also Tuesday, Kimberly Sochia, who has also been charged in Nordquist’s murder, appeared for her own hearing. Investigators testified that Sochia initially denied involvement in Nordquist’s disappearance but later wrote a statement describing what she witnessed.
When the statement was read back to her, police said, Sochia began crying hysterically and said she was going to throw up. The investigator gave her a trash can.
Sochia, who was pregnant at the time, told State Police Investigator Nicholas Napierski that she was a domestic violence survivor, on probation, and had two children in foster care. She had her baby while in jail.
During the hearing, she was talking to her lawyer and taking notes.
After the hearings, prosecutor Kelly Wolford said that the investigation is still ongoing.
“We continue to uncover evidence on a daily basis,” said Wolford, the chief assistant district attorney for Ontario County. She said there is “a ton” of video evidence. But nothing uncovered so far has changed the tenor of the case, which Wolford and veteran state police investigators have said is unlike anything they’ve seen.
“Nothing we’ve uncovered during the course of this investigation has mitigated the horribleness of what we saw in the beginning,” Wolford said.
Wolford said the trial won’t be until at least January. It’s currently unclear whether all of the defendants will be tried together or separately.

Pre-trial hearings continue this week in Judge Kristina Karle’s courtroom for the other five defendants: Patrick Goodwin and Emily Motyka on Wednesday, Kyle Sage and Thomas Eaves on Thursday, and Jennifer Quijano on Friday.

Ontario County judge Kristina Karle presides over the Precious Arzuaga hearing for the murder of Sam Nordquist at the Ontario County Courthouse on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com)N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Judge orders DNA from 2 Sam Nordquist murder suspects

Ontario County Court Judge Kristina Karle ordered DNA swabs from both Precious Arzuaga and her son, Thomas Eaves, on Wednesday.

spectrumlocalnews.com

Judge orders DNA from 2 Sam Nordquist murder suspects​

A mother and son charged in the death of Sam Nordquist must now turn over their DNA to investigators.

Ontario County Court Judge Kristina Karle ordered DNA swabs from both Precious Arzuaga and her son, Thomas Eaves, on Wednesday.

They are two of the seven people charged with murder for allegedly torturing and killing Nordquist in Hopewell earlier this year.


“This is an important step then we can further test the evidence that we have and build our case moving forward,” said Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Victoria Porter.

The five other suspects in Nordquist's death will be in court later this month.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/make-them-suffer-sam-nordquists-mother-reflects-on-year-without-son/

‘Make them suffer’: Sam Nordquist’s mother reflects on year without son​

It was one year ago this month when the mother of Sam Nordquist, a Minnesota man, realized something was wrong about his trip to the Finger Lakes region. He had left home in late September and never returned.

Police say Nordquist was tortured and eventually killed while being held captive in a Hopewell motel. Seven suspects were eventually arrested in connection with his death.

Sam Nordquist was described by his mother as very kind, loving, and outgoing. Eight months after the discovery of the alleged torture and murder of Sam, his family continues to fight for justice and intends to see it through in person.


“I would like this to move along faster than what it is on one hand, but on the other hand, I know that they have all this evidence that they have to go through, and they don’t want any loopholes. They don’t want to have to retry anybody or have anything dismissed,” she said.

Linda expressed her confidence that justice will be served. She stated that while others have said the death penalty, which is not legal in New York State, would be their preference, Linda said she would rather those guilty of her son’s death have to face the consequences for the rest of their lives.

“Anything less than life without the possibility of parole, I’ll be devastated,” Linda said. “Make them suffer every time they look in the mirror. I want them to be remembered of what they did to Sam. Every time they close their eyes, I want them to see what they did. Have nightmares. Sam will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

 

[GrandmaBear]

Crying and pacing means a mental health crisis? Give me a break. What horrible people and not only who does such things but what kind of monster makes children particpate??!!

Precious was certainly misnamed. Or maybe she wasn't--isn't she just precious now?? Meant with sarcasm of course.

This poor young man and his poor family. I hope they get full justice, life with no parole for all.

He was from the Mpls area and the trial is in NY, I hope they are attending by either Zoom or have some help with the expense to be there.