UPDATE: According to a search warrant filed with the Rowan County Clerk of Court, Salisbury Police were contacted by a transgender female, Kaniya Eboni Bernard, 29, who had traveled to Salisbury and received silicone injections in her buttocks from another transgender female who went by the name Kysha Wellington.

According to the Feb. 15 warrant, Wellington was later determined to be Kavonceya Cornelius. Bernard said she received injections 15 times and the last time was on Nov. 25. When Bernard got home shortly after receiving the injections, she began having breathing problems.

Doctors told Bernard the silicone traveled from the injection site, hit a vein and traveled into her lungs.

It is not clear how Bernard met Cornelius, but she did say Cornelius had a profile on an online classified site under the name TS Cinnamon.

The warrants also say police discovered later that another transgender individual, Eugene Jones II, went to Cornelius’ Union Heights Boulevard home for injections. The medical examiner said Jones died from silicone traveling to Jones’ lungs and heart after receiving the illegal injections.

 

SALISBURY — A Salisbury woman turned herself in to Salisbury authorities today and is charged with second-degree murder after it was determined a teen she injected with non-medical grade silicone died.

Salisbury Police charged Kavonceya Iman Cornelius, 42, of 535 Union Heights Blvd., after they were notified Feb. 13 about an out-of-state victim who’d received silicone injections from an unlicensed individual in Salisbury, according to Salisbury Police. That victim now has very serious health problems, police officials said.

The investigation led into a death investigation of an incident in Salisbury. The victim died in Fayetteville.

The investigation discovered the victim, Eugene Jones II, 19, of Fayetteville, had come to the residence of Kavonceya Cornelius, also known as Kenneth Rudolph Cornelius, for silicone injections.

Cornelius gave the teen injections and Jones went back to Fayetteville, where he died as a result of this procedure on Jan. 12. During the investigation it was found that Cornelius had been conducting these medical procedures with non-medical grade silicone.

Cornelius was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under no bond. A first appearance is set for Wednesday.