New details emerged in the horrific murder of Sam Nordquist, the transgender man held in captivity and tortured for a month in a welfare motel in upstate New York, as his alleged killers were formally charged.

The seven accused, including the woman Nordquist was in a romantic relationship with, all pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child and concealment of a human corpse.

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Nordquist’s girlfriend in New York, Precious Arzuaga, 38, along with three others, pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual abuse charges. Arzuaga pleaded not guilty to coercion.

Nordquist’s body was discovered wrapped in plastic bags and dumped in an open field on February 13. Investigators say he had been held in captivity and was tortured for over a month beginning on New Year’s Day.

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The chain of events that led to Nordquist’s death are coming into focus as his family speaks out and police and local officials defend their actions before, during and after Nordquist’s gruesome captivity.

According to an 11-count indictment issued last week, Nordquist’s torture included beatings, hitting, kicking, punching, starvation, forced consumption of feces, urine and tobacco juice. His captors made Nordquist kneel facing a wall, doused him with bleach and sexually assaulted him with foreign objects. Two young children were also coerced to participate in the torture, the indictment states.

Nordquist and Arzuaga met online and began dating in August, according to interviews with his family reported by NBC News.

They would talk for hours on the phone, day and night, seven days a week, said Sam’s mother, Linda Nordquist.

“Sam was vulnerable. He looked like he was 15, young,” Linda Nordquist said. “She love-bombed him.”

Nordquist left his home in Oakdale, Minnesota in September and traveled to Canandaigua, New York, to pursue the romantic relationship, his family said. The couple stayed at Patty’s Lodge, a welfare motel on the outskirts of town, where Nordquist’s torture would later take place.

The family reported that Nordquist’s contact with them became uncharacteristically infrequent over his time there, so much so that his mother requested multiple welfare checks at the motel.

When Sam did get in touch, his mother said, “He didn’t sound like himself. It’s like he was being coached on what to say,” she said. “Sam lived with me his whole, entire life. We were always together. So I know how Sam talks — and this was not Sam.”

A social services agent later told Linda Nordquist that Sam’s girlfriend Arzuaga was controlling his cellphone use. He wanted to come home to Minnesota and was concocting an “escape plan,” Linda Norquist said.

The agent said Sam was scheduled to return to the social services office on December 19, but he never showed up.

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