BATON ROUGE - Mary Jane Marcantel, a civic activist who worked in downtown neighborhoods and was an investigator in high-profile criminal cases, died on Saturday, The Advocate reports. She was 77. 

Marcantel was a longtime advocate for the Spanish Town neighborhood and worked for the civic association for years. More recently, she moved to Beauregard Town and began her work lobbying in that area. 

“She was a huge force,” Darryl Gissel, a longtime Spanish Town resident and close friend of Marcantel’s, told The Advocate. “If it wasn’t for Mary Jane, Spanish Town wouldn’t be what it is today.”

Marcantel also worked as an investigator in high-profile cases. She found evidence against George Paul "Joey" Smith, who was convicted of arranging the murder of his second wife Sheila Smith and suspected in the disappearance of his third wife Angela Smith, the newspaper said.

Funeral arrangements for Marcantel were not immediately announced.