Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has announced the death of an inmate at Fraser Valley Institution, a women's prison in Abbotsford.
Katherine Anne Johnson, 66, died April 27 at the institutional hospital, although CSC did not release the exact cause.
Johnson had been serving a life sentence since Oct. 31, 2007 for the second-degree murder of her roommate Horace Stevens, 56.
Stevens was found beaten to death with a baseball bat in his apartment in the 1200 block of East 11th Avenue in Vancouver on Aug. 1, 2006.
Johnson, who spent more than 30 years in the prison system, made headlines in 2009 when she filed an application in the Federal Court of Canada to have CSC approve and pay for her sex-change operation.
Johnson, who was born a male, also successfully fought to be transferred to a woman's prison.
As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the police and the coroner have been notified, and CSC will review the circumstances of the incident.