Amber Monroe, a 20-year-old transgender woman who was a well-known LGBTQ advocate, was found murdered in Detroit on Saturday afternoon according to police.
According to Fox 2 Detroit, Monroe’s death is still under investigation, and police say that she appears to have been shot to death.
Local reports list Monroe as a Wayne State University student, but school officials tell theGrio.com she’s never been enrolled there.
Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox retweeted this message about Monroe’s death:
Heart BREAKING News; the 12th Trans Woman of Color to be lynched this year was found this morning in… https://t.co/AuaLkJSlf0
— BIKO (@ChernoBiko) August 8, 2015
Monroe was last seen near 6 Mile and Woodward, which is a place transgendered people know well in the area.
“A lot of transgendered women go out there and don’t have support systems or employment,” transgender rights activist Julisa Abad said. “So they are forced to do whatever they can do to survive.”
Abad said that Monroe was no stranger to violence and had been working as a prostitute at the time because she felt she had nowhere else to go.
“She’s been shot 2 or 3 times.,” Abad said. “But this time she didn’t make it.”