The body of a woman found in Lake Michigan has been identified as missing transgender activist Elise Malary.

       Police in Evanston, Illinois, say they responded to a call after it was reported that a there was the body of a Black woman on the rocks.

       Malary’s body was pulled from the water just blocks from her apartment on Thursday and taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, according to officials.

       Malary, 31, had not been seen since 9 March and was reported missing on 15 March.

       She was a prominent activist in the LGBTQ community and had left her job at the Civil Rights Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s office the day before she went missing, according to WGN9.

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       The manner and cause of death are still pending.

       Investigators say that her apartment had been left unlocked but that they found nothing nothing at her home or her car that would indicate foul play.

       Friends and neighbours had spent Saturday canvassing the neighborhood in a n effort to find her, before her body was found.

       “She’d speak out on behalf of any issue that impacted woman of color, LGBTQ folk — her heart’s so big,” said Iggy Ladden of Chicago Therapy Collective, speaking hours before the announcement.