The decomposing body of a popular Denver hairdresser was discovered Friday in an alley in the city’s Lakewood district.

Jax Gratton, a trans woman missing since April, was wearing the same clothes she had on the night she left her apartment when she told her roommate she’d return in a few hours. She never came home.

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“Jonathan was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” his husband wrote.

“That is comforting to me. She was gone the same night she left her house. She didn’t spend 6 to 7 weeks in horrible situations,” her mother, Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, told ABC 7 in Denver.

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Police said the body appeared to have been in the alley for several weeks. A detective told Gratton-Camis he had visually identified Gratton with her tattoos.

Gratton-Camis said she had been getting tips that her daughter was being held captive and tortured.

“So, knowing that wasn’t true … that brings me peace,” she said.

Gratton’s friends and family had been searching for her since she was last seen around 10 p.m. on April 15 in Denver’s University Hills neighborhood.  

“I am terrified for my daughter,” Gratton-Camis said at the time.

“My fear is that somebody killed her,” she said, alleging Gratton had been in abusive relationships in the past. 

On Saturday, her mother announced Gratton’s death in an emotional post to Facebook.

“With a broken heart, I share the news that our beloved Jax Gratton has been found — and she is no longer with us. There are no words strong enough for the grief we are feeling.

“The light she carried, the love she gave so freely, and the joy she brought into our lives have been taken from this world far too soon,” she wrote, above a picture of a mural of Gratton.

“I want to thank everyone — near and far — who has shown up for us. Everyone who shared her story. Everyone who shared her face. Everyone who sent out a prayer, a hope, a kind thought. Everyone who hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped.”

“This has opened my eyes in ways I can’t ignore,” Gratton’s mom continued. “It’s not just about Jax — it’s about all of you in the LGBTQIA+ community who face the world every day with courage, just wanting to live, love, and exist safely and equally. That should never be a fight. And yet it is.”

“Jax Gratton was a light — I know that. She lit up so many lives just by being herself. Unapologetically. Fiercely. Fully. I see her in every act of love and strength you’ve shown, and I wish peace, love, and protection for all of you.”

On Monday, a service was held honoring Gratton. Trans state Rep. Brianna Titone (D) read on her mother’s behalf.

“She wanted what every person deserves, a chance to live safely and fully as herself, but the world around her made that feel like too much to ask,” Titone said. “She was trans, and she was terrified, not because of who she was, but because of what the world is becoming… She was hurt by the slurs shouted at her, by the stares, the threats, the way society told her again and again that she didn’t belong. But she kept going, she kept loving, she kept dreaming of a better world.”

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