Sandra Bland remembered as ‘courageous voice’ on social issues

LISLE, Ill. – Family and friends of an Illinois woman found dead in a Texas jail are remembering her as a “courageous voice” on social justice.

Hundreds attended Sandra Bland’s funeral Saturday near the Chicago suburb where she grew up.

An autopsy released Friday found Bland used a plastic trash bag to hang herself three days after a confrontational traffic stop like the ones she railed against on social media. The 28-year-old woman’s family has questioned the findings, saying she was excited about starting a new job and wouldn’t have taken her own life.

The Rev. Theresa Dear told reporters outside the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church that Bland should be celebrated for standing up for herself.

The July 10 traffic stop became violent when Bland refused to get out of the car.

WATCH: Waller County officials Thursday released some new details about the death investigation of Sandra Bland.

Authorities have said the bag was tied to an overhead steel partition of the jail cell where Bland died. The “circular area” of the bag formed by the slipknot was about 6 1/2 inches in diameter, wrote Dr. Sara Doyle, who signed the report.

The report released Friday did not address toxicology, saying only that blood and urine and other specimens have been sent for additional tests. Prosecutors have said results could take weeks.

Preliminary results show Bland had marijuana in her system, a finding that could be “relevant to her state of mind,” assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam has said.

READ MORE: Sandra Bland told jailers she’d once tried suicide, sheriff says

Diepraam said there were “approximately 25 to 30 horizontal faint … linear superficial incised wounds” up to an inch long on her body. He said they were likely self-inflicted, weeks earlier.

Relatives and supporters have disputed that the death could have been a suicide. Waller County officials have said there is no evidence to suggest otherwise but have welcomed an investigation led by the FBI and involving numerous local and state agencies.

Bland died three days after her arrest on July 10, when a state trooper pulled her over near Prairie View A&M University for making an improper lane change. The stop, captured on the patrol car dash camera video, escalated to an assault arrest when the officer, who is white, said Bland kicked him.