They investigate as homicide the death of the brother of the former mayor of Miami

In these countries, the death penalty applies to LGBTQ people 0:46

(CNN) --

The death of an LGBTQ advocate and brother of a former Miami mayor is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said, after his body was discovered in a Florida landfill.

Jorge Diaz-Johnston, a plaintiff in a landmark 2014 same-sex marriage lawsuit against Miami-Dade County, was found dead in a Jackson County dump on Jan. 8, the Tallahassee Police Department said.

The body had been in trash collected from an Okaloosa County landfill that morning and transported to Jackson County by a trash trucking company, according to a statement issued by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

Jorge Diaz-Johnston was found dead on January 8 in Jackson County, Florida.

Police are investigating his death as a homicide.

The 54-year-old man was last seen Jan. 3 in Tallahassee, police said.

Diaz-Johnston and her husband Don Johnston were one of six couples who filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade County in 2014 challenging Florida's same-sex marriage ban.

A Miami-Dade circuit judge ruled in favor of the couples in 2015.

"There are simply no words for the loss of my loving husband Jorge Isaias Diaz-Johnston," Johnston wrote on social media Wednesday.

"He touched so many people with his kind and generous heart."

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Manny Diaz, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party and mayor of Miami from 2001 to 2009, released a statement thanking police and city officials who worked to locate his brother and investigate the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.

"I am deeply grateful for the tremendous support they gave me, my brother-in-law Don and my family after the loss of my brother, Jorge Diaz-Johnston. My brother was such a special gift to this world whose heart and legacy will live on." for generations to come," the statement said.

The investigation into Diaz-Johnston's death is ongoing, the Tallahassee Police Department said.

Investigators asked those with any information to contact detectives.

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