Under a blazing blue sky, a group of nearly 100 people gathered at the Denver City and County Building on Monday morning to remember a “beautiful” hairdresser who was “loud” and “full of life, creativity and love.”
“She was strong, fierce and unapologetically herself,” Jax Gratton’s sister, Marilyn Mastro, wrote in a statement read aloud by a family friend. “Listening to old voicemails, she was funny — a little weird — but the most genuine person you would ever cross paths with. She will watch over me.”
Gratton, 34, was found dead in Lakewood on Friday after Gratton was last been seen leaving her University Hills apartment the night of April 15, according to a weekend post from her mother on Facebook. In the nearly two months that Gratton was missing, more than 5,100 people joined the group in an attempt to find her.
Lakewood police spokesman John Romero on Monday told The Denver Post that the Jefferson County coroner has yet to positively identify the body, which was found in an alley in the 9600 block of West Colfax Avenue at about 5 p.m. Friday. The coroner also has not determined the cause or manner of death yet, he said.
But he said over the weekend that the body “was in advanced stages of decomposition” and that a suspicious death investigation was ongoing.
State Rep. Brianna Titone, a transgender lawmaker, read remarks from Gratton’s mother, Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, that spoke to Gratton’s struggles identifying as transgender.
“She was trans. She was terrified,” Gratton-Camis said through Titone. “She was vocal about her fears — fears that have now come true for too many. She was hurt by the slurs about her, by the stares, the threats, the way society told her again and again that she shouldn’t belong. But she kept going. She kept loving.”
Gratton’s father, Mike Mastro, also addressed the attendees through a proxy speaker at Monday’s memorial. He told a story of how Gratton, then in middle school, came home on a school day with a telltale sunburn, an indication that his daughter hadn’t really spent the day in class.
Gratton admitted to ditching school and spending the day at the Six Flags amusement park.
“I couldn’t even be mad at her for it,” Mastro’s statement said. “That’s who Jax was. She would rather tell the truth and get in trouble than to lie about it. A parent should never have to lose a child.”
Gratton’s friends realized something was wrong in mid-April when she didn’t show up for appointments with several clients, Brandy Carey, a manager at Solera Salon Suites where Gratton rented a studio, told The Denver Post in late April.
Gratton’s parents reached out to her fellow stylists after not hearing from her, and Carey accessed her work computer to find that the last appointment she checked out was on April 12.
The crowd on Monday included many members of Denver’s LGBTQ community, who wore pins emblazoned with Gratton’s face and an assortment of rainbow-colored clothing and accessories. Paul Salas described himself as Jax’s friend and peer.
“She was so many things to so many of us — a daughter, sister, friend, stylist, teacher, activist, beloved community member and so much more,” he said. “To say that she will be missed doesn’t even touch the surface of the feeling of loss we are all having.”
Gratton’s sister over the weekend started a GoFundMe campaign to help the family commission an autopsy report and help provide financial support to the family “at this very difficult time.”
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