Drag queen’s best friend wants answers after he found him dead in Soho flat

The best friend of a legendary drag artist found dead in a Soho flat in mysterious circumstances has dismissed the police investigation into the incident as ‘totally unacceptable’. 

Joshua Grannell discovered Steven Grygelko, a drag queen who performed as Heklina, unresponsive in the flat they shared in London in April 2023. 

Nearly two years after the discovery the Metropolitan Police’s official line is that the death was ‘unexpected’, leaving family and friends of the legendary drag artist desperate for information that could help them come to terms with the tragedy. 

Grannell, 51, a fellow drag queen whose stage name is Peaches Christ, was on tour with Grygelko, 55, in London at the time of the incident. The flat they shared in Soho Square was provided for them by the company staging their shows. 

Grannell told Metro how the image of discovering Grygelko dead was ‘burned into his memory’ and left him traumatised. 

Speaking from his home in San Francisco, he said: ‘I am at a place now where I have to speak out. Steven’s loved ones are being let down by the London police. There has apparently been no progress with the investigation. We have to ask ourselves why.’

The death has been described officially as ‘unexpected’ up to this point which has baffled his family and friends who want answers. 

Only last week the police released a clip of three men they wanted to contact in connection with the incident. 

Detectives believe the men had visited the flat before the drag queen was found dead.

Grannell, who has performed at the Albert Hall and is also a film maker, told Metro: ‘They only released that after we put pressure on. It’s too little too late. I’m very disappointed with this inquiry. 

‘I’m convinced there was someone else in that flat with my friend before they died who maybe could have helped Steven if it was a medical emergency.

‘When I returned to the flat the door was not properly closed which was very strange. But I thought Steven had gone out briefly to get a coffee or something. I just pottered around the flat. The place was a bit of a mess with make up everywhere but I didn’t think too much about it.

‘Then I saw Steven in a strange position on the floor and not responsive. He was in full drag. That moment has been burned into my memory. I raised the alarm and the police came. They treated me strangely even though I was traumatised, I guess at that stage I was a suspect.’

Grannell described how detectives and forensics offices combed through the flat for clues. 

He said: ‘I told them someone else had been in the flat. There was a very loud fan in the bathroom which we both hated. It was on when I got home. I know Steven would not have left it on, it just didn’t add up.’

He said some recreational drugs had been found in the apartment but the idea of a potential overdose was out of the question. 

He told Metro: ‘This was no OD. Steven was not a drug taker in that way. Not heroin or anything like that. I had been away from the flat when it happened but had been in contact with Steven via text and everything seemed fine with him. There was nothing I was worried about.’

After months without any police update at the request of Grannell and Grygelko’s next of kin the detective in charge of the case spoke to them on a zoom call recently in which they expressed their dissatisfaction with the police inquiry. 

Grannell said: ‘We made it clear we were not happy. Then after the meeting they issued a press release appealing for information on three men who they say had been at the flat. Why didn’t they release that before? It’s so long ago now why didn’t they do it at the time? None of this adds up.

‘I didn’t know how the police worked in London but I’m not impressed. We want answers and we don’t even have a cause of death.’ 

In an appeal update last week the Met urged the three men in the CCTV clip to come forward. 

Detective Chief Inspector Dean Purvis, from the Central West Command Unit, said: ‘Our thoughts are with Steven’s family and friends who still have a lot of unanswered questions about what happened to him.

‘We know that the three men in the CCTV images were at the flat in the early hours of 3 April 2023. I am asking them to contact police. We need to establish what happened, and how Steven was when they left.

‘If you recognise any of the men, I would encourage you to let us know who they are.’

Grygelko and Grannell had been touring with their stage production Mommie Queerest, which parodied the 1981 drama film Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway. 

It was set for a two-week run at Soho Theatre. 

Paying tribute to his friend of nearly 30 years Grannell told Metro: ‘He was brilliantly funny and secretly kind. He helped so many people and launched so many careers but didn’t want any credit. A wonderful person.’

Heklina was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and lived in Iceland before moving to San Francisco.

The stage name originates from the volcano Hekla in the south of Iceland.

Heklina secured legendary status in the San Francisco drag scene in 1996 for hosting the popular weekly series now known as Mother, which attracted stars such as Lady Gaga and Charro.

She played Dorothy Zbornak in a successful drag production of The Golden Girls and appeared in the 2010 independent parody feature Baby Jane?

Heklina was one of the co-founders of the long-running drag show Trannyshack which started at The Stud Bar in San Francisco during the mid-1990s.

Metro has contacted The Met for comment.

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