Trans KC woman ‘targeted’ at work before body found at FedEx lot, lawsuit says
The parents of a Kansas City FedEx employee who say she died by suicide after a fentanyl overdose in a company parking lot are suing the shipping company and a security contractor, alleging she was bullied at work because she was transgender.
The family said her body was left in her vehicle in the FedEx parking lot for days while they searched for her.
The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court March 21, names Reyna Ortiz as the employee who died at a FedEx parking lot on Front Street in Kansas City on Dec. 23, 2022.
The lawsuit is being brought by Reyna Ortiz’s parents, Salvador Ortiz, of New Mexico, and Rosa Medellin, of Kansas City, against both FedEx and Securitas, the contractor the lawsuit said was responsible for patrolling the lot where Reyna Ortiz died in her vehicle.
“The severity to which Plaintiffs have suffered after having discovered that their beloved child was decomposing, during the entire period they were searching for her, is unfathomable,” the lawsuit said. “During the days that Ms. Ortiz’s body sat in her car, unattended, Plaintiffs could have been mourning and grieving and properly tending to their child’s wishes to be laid to rest.”
Harassed, bullied, targeted for discrimination
According to the lawsuit, Reyna Ortiz worked at the FedEx facility on Front Street, where she was “harassed, bullied and targeted for discrimination” because she was transgender.
Eventually, the lawsuit alleges she died by suicide due to an overdose in a parking lot “because of the stress and strain of the situation at her employment” at FedEx.
The lawsuit said after the overdose, Reyna Ortiz’s body remained in her vehicle for more than three days over the Christmas holiday.
Representatives for FedEx and Securitas did not respond to requests for comment.
Kansas City police confirmed to The Star that police received a call to the area Dec. 26, 2022, on a report of a body, and that Reyna Ortiz was listed as the deceased person.
The lawsuit lists several allegations against the two defendants, including interference with the right of burial, negligence and breach of contract.
Similar to high-profile KC case
Lee Cross Jr., an attorney representing the parents, pointed to what he said was a similar, high-profile case involving the body of Randy Potter, a Lenexa man who died by suicide in a parking lot at Kansas City International Airport in 2017. Family members wondered where he was as his body decomposed for months in a truck parked at the airport, and it was only after someone smelled an odor coming from the vehicle that the body was discovered.
Family members sued the company responsible for monitoring vehicles in the lot, and the lawsuit was eventually settled.
“We thought it somewhat similar in that they had a duty to patrol and secure the parking lot,” Cross said.
Cross also said he felt security should be carrying Narcan, the drug carried by first responders that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Not only do they have a duty to patrol it, but they probably should have had Narcan to find her and resuscitate her if possible,” he said. “Now, some of this is just unfortunate, but somebody should have done something about it. Why didn’t they?”
