On Christmas Day in 1988, Xtravaganza was found strangled under a bed at the Duchess Hotel in New York. It was estimated that her body had been there for four days upon discovery. Shooting for Paris Is Burning was ongoing, and the film's final minutes include Angie Xtravaganza reacting to her death. Angie Xtravaganza said she felt that Venus was one to take too many chances, that she "was too wild with people in the streets", and that she feared "something [was] going to happen to [her]." Angie Xtravaganza was the first person detectives approached with the news of Xtravaganza's death, and it was she who broke the news to the latter's biological parents.
