The body of Katoucha Niane, one of the first African women to attain international stardom as a model and a vocal opponent of female genital mutilation, was found in the Seine River, police said. Known simply as Katoucha, the former top model for Yves Saint Laurent and other top designers was found near the Garigliano bridge in Paris, judicial police in Paris said. An autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the she may have fallen accidentally into the river, they said. Katoucha had been missing since January and was last seen returning home from a party. She lived in a houseboat near Paris’ Alexandre III bridge, and her handbag was later found on the boat. The Guinean-born model ran away to Europe at 17 and wanted to be a model. Her big break came when Jules-Francois Crahay, then the designer at Lanvin, spotted her in a line-up. They hired her as a fitting model. Her first catwalk modeling was for Thierry Mugler at the start of the 1980s.After quitting the runway, she turned to speaking out actively against female circumcision, describing her own experience at age 9 in a book, “Katoucha, In My Flesh,” which was published last year. “I will never get the incomparable pain out of my head,” she wrote in the book, which she dedicated to her three children. Vanity Fair’s fashion and style director, Michael Roberts, said Katoucha was “one of those girls who used her fame to spotlight the misfortunes of others.”"She always seemed so gracious and very lovely,” he said. “She was sunny and she was bright, and I liked her a lot.”