When law enforcement authorities in Texas identified one of four women they say was killed by Border Patrol supervisor Juan David Ortiz, they made a tragic situation even more painful for those who knew Nikki Enriquez, LGBTQ activists say.

That’s because the 28-year-old transgender woman had disassociated herself from her birth name, Humberto Ortiz (no relation to the accused killer) and had taken on a new name. Enriquez's Facebook page listed her name as Nikki Enriquez. She also sometimes went by Janelle Ortiz.

"Disregarding the victim's gender identity and misgendering them in news reports adds further insult to injury, compounding the tragedy by invalidating who the victims were," GLAAD, the gay rights organization formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said in a statement.

Sue Yacka-Bible, GLAAD communications director, told USA TODAY that public officials and the media routinely misidentify transgender individuals by using their “deadnames,” or birth names, and ignoring their self-identified names.

“There are a lot of problems with the way media identify transgender individuals, but police are often ground zero for giving out misinformation on names and pronouns of transgender victims,” said Yacka-Bible, who said criminal investigators have a vested interest in correctly identifying transgender people.

“If you are investigating someone by their deadname, a transgender individual’s friends, family, co-workers and associates may not know who authorities are talking about and that could hinder an investigation right from the start,” she said.

More:'Serial killer' border patrol agent investigation: 4th victim named

GLAAD has published guidelines for the media in reporting crime against transgender individuals, noting that transgender people, especially transgender women of color, are disproportionately affected by hate violence.

Enriquez was killed Friday only hours before Ortiz was apprehended by investigators in Laredo, Texas. She was fatally shot in the head between Sept. 14-15 and her body found off Interstate 35.

The first woman authorities say Ortiz killed was Melissa Ramirez, 29, who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on Sept. 4 in a rural part of Webb County outside Laredo. On Sept. 13, 42-year-old Claudine Ann Luera was found shot in the head and in critical condition just 2 miles from where Ramirez was discovered. She died the same day in a hospital. A fourth victim has not been identified by police.

Police say Ortiz targeted all four women because they were sex workers. He told investigators about his disdain for Laredo's sex worker community, coldly saying he wanted "to eradicate all the prostitutes."

In announcing the arrest of Ortiz, law enforcement authorities in Webb County, Texas, listed Enriquez as "John Doe" pending notification of relatives. The others were listed as "Jane Doe." Later, when authorities reported "Humberto Cruz" as one of the victims, local and national media outlets reported the same name and described the victim as a transgender woman.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro R. “Chilo” Alaniz said they used "Humberto Ortiz" in naming the victim because it's her legal name. “I can foresee documents being amended to include ‘also known as,’ ” he said.

Law enforcement authorities learned Enriquez was a transgender woman through interviews with family members, said Yanira de Leon, a spokeswoman with the Webb County district attorney’s office.

Monica Roberts, a writer and human rights activist in Texas, wrote of her frustration with law enforcement authorities in correctly identifying Enriquez on her blog, TransGriot.

“Been aware that we lost a trans woman since Saturday, but took me this long to confirm it because in large part of her being deadnamed and misgendered by Webb County law enforcement officials before they corrected it,” she wrote Tuesday.

Roberts, who tracks transgender homicide victims, wrote that Enriquez, whom she identified as Nikki Janelle Enriquez, was the 21st transgender person to be killed this year in Texas and that she was the second Latina whose life ended violently.

Enriquez's family has insisted on identifying their relative as “Humberto Ortiz.” In a published obituary, the family identified her as “Humberto German ‘Ricky Janelle’ Ortiz.” Her mother’s surname was Enriquez.

On her Facebook page, there's no trace of Enriquez's birth name. She uploaded dozens of selfies and photos of her with friends.

In one of her most recent Facebook posts, she included a close-up selfie and wrote in Spanish, “Lo bonit[o]no se quita,” which translates roughly to “beauty cannot be taken away.”

Corpus Christi Caller-Times reporter Eleanor Dearman and USA TODAY's Rick Jervis contributed.