Although authorities have not called Hamilton's death suspicious, her friends are eager to know what went wrong.
"I'm still trying to find a scenario that makes sense," said Billie Miller, Hamilton's boss at Arkansas Flag and Banner, in Little Rock. "I can't come up with anything that makes sense."
Miller said Hamilton was a devout Catholic, with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe tattooed on her foot, but was also interested in voodoo. She said Hamilton - who used the name Lucie Marie on Facebook - had been saving money to travel to New Jersey, but was not planning to undergo a sex change.
"She was very spiritual and beautiful, too," said Miller. "She was not there for some dark purpose. She wasn't depressed; in fact, you couldn't meet a more upbeat person."
The voodoo priest identifies himself as Houngan Hector on his Gade Nou Leve Society Web site, which says the three-day Lave Tet ceremony was to begin Friday.
Lave Tet (from the French laver tete) literally means head-washing, according to several Haitian voodoo Web sites. Hector's site describes it as a ceremony that begins with cleansing, after which participants lie in a "badji," or altar room, before being "baptized."
Hector, who claims he was initiated as a senior priest in Haiti, said Lave Tet "improves the ability for possession, clears the mind, clarifies abilities for seeing, and substantially improves the life."
It is one of numerous spiritual services he offers.
A picture of a ceremonial table on his site shows several bottles of brand-name liquor. But Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, declined to say whether drugs or alcohol had been involved.
"As of right now, we have a sudden death and we're trying to determine how this person died," he said.
