Brandi Bledsoe, a transgender woman, was found dead behind a Cleveland home. Her death is being investigated as a suspected homicide.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland woman found dead Saturday with a plastic bag around her head identifies as a transgender woman, according to family members.

Brandi Bledsoe, 32, told her family about two years ago that she wanted to be identified as Brandi, instead of Brandon, the name in which she was identified to the media by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.

Her death is a suspected homicide, but the medical examiner has not offered an official ruling on how she died.

Bledsoe was found dead about 10 a.m. in the driveway behind a home on Drexel Avenue, near East 108th Street.

She was wearing only underwear and had white plastic bags covering her head and both hands, according to police reports.

A 5-year-old boy discovered her body while riding bikes with his 12-year-old brother.

Police also said she had head trauma. Cleveland police spokesman Jennifer Ciaccia said investigators will take her transgender status into consideration in the investigation. She said the investigation is in its early stages and it's too early to determine of motive for Bledsoe's death.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Bledsoe's cousin, John Craggett, said she told the family about two years ago that she wanted to be identified as Brandi.

"She wasn't very outgoing before she told us," Craggett said. "She just wasn't happy with who she was. When she told us, she was honestly a lot better as Brandi. She was happy."

Bledsoe's grandfather, 73-year-old Johnnie Ledbetter, agreed.

"We got a long great when she lived with me," Ledbetter said. "I wish she was around more after she moved out."

Craggett said Bledsoe grew up in Nebraska and moved to Cleveland several years ago. She recently moved out of her grandfather's home and into her own place.

"She was really independent," Craggett said. "A lot of opportunities opened up for her. She was looking for freedom."

Bledsoe worked at an area Home Depot and was an artist who specialized in animation.

"She was really beautiful," Craggett said. "She was really sweet and nice. That's what bugs the crap out of me about this. Whoever did this can rot in hell."

Her death, if officially ruled a homicide, would be the 23rd transgender death in the country in 2016, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Three other transgender women have been killed in the Cleveland area since 2012.

Brittany Stergis, 22, was shot dead in December 2013 inside her car at the Lakeview Estates apartments on West 25th Street. Delshawn Carroll is serving 18 years to life in prison after he admitted to the killing.

Betty Skinner, a 52-year-old disabled resident of a senior apartment complex in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood, was found dead the same year in her bed of an apparent homicide. She had head injuries.

Those deaths happened less than a year after 20-year-old Cemia "Ce Ce" Dove was killed in an apartment in Olmsted Township. Cuyahoga County prosecutors said Andrey Bridges thought he had arranged a date with a woman when Dove arrived.

Prosecutors said Bridges became enraged when he discovered Dove was transgender. He stabbed her 40 times, then threw her body into a pond.

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