Dorothy Adjovu, mayor's assistant, found dead

Executive assistant to the mayor and Democratic campaign worker Dorothy Adjovu, 21, was found dead in her home Wednesday morning, police said.

Her death is being treated as an apparent suicide, sources said.

"It's tragic, inexplicable," Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said. "She had a great future."

"All of City Hall is just devastated," he said. "My heart goes out to her family and her friends."

Police responded to her home and "found her deceased," said Tucson Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Maria Hawke.

"It does not appear to be criminal in nature," she said.

Rothschild's spokeswoman, Lisa Markkula, had gone to Adjovu's house when she didn't show up for work at City Hall on Wednesday morning. Markkula called police to ask for a welfare check when no one answered the door.

Adjovu, a recent Political Science graduate of the University of Arizona, began working for Rothschild when he took office in December. Before that, she served as campaign manager for Councilwoman Regina Romero and an intern for the Pima County Democratic Party.

Adjovu, who was born in Ghana and came to the United States in 1998 with her family, was on the board of Los Adelitas Arizona.

Adjovu was widely known as an intelligent, charming young woman with what appeared to be a bright future.

"She was just a wonderful person who lit up the room," Markkula said.

"Dorothy was brilliant, hard-working and kind," she said.

"She had a great future, and we all loved her," she said.

"There wasn't a kinder person. She just made you feel good all the time," Rothschild said.

"I want to remember her as I knew her in life: she always had a big smile, she was always together," he said.

"She came in here (to City Hall) with a bunch of 40, 50-year-olds, and within a week we were all answering to her," Rothschild said.

Romero said Adjovu "always had a great attitude."

"I'm totally shocked," Romero said. "In these situations, you think, 'did I miss anything?'"

"She was very smart and determined," Romero said, calling Adjovu a "dear friend ... with a great sense of humor."

"She was so caring, with a sense of responsibility, for her parents and for her community," she said.

City Hall spokesman Michael Graham called Adjovu's death "a tragedy."

"She was a very hardworking person, very well-liked," he said.

"On behalf of the City of Tucson, our condolences and sympathy go out to her family," he said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Adjovu's friends are set to hold a candlelight vigil in her memory at El Presidio Plaza, downtown outside City Hall, at 7 p.m. on Friday. That vigil was originally scheduled for the previous night, but the date was changed Thursday afternoon.