First US Muslim judge, Sheila Abdus-Salaam, found dead in Hudson river

New York: Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who became the first Muslim and black woman to serve as a United States judge, was found dead in New York's Hudson River on Wednesday.

Media reports quoted police, as saying that Judge Salaam, 65, had been missing from her home since Wednesday morning, and that they had found her body floating in the Hudson River off Manhattan's west side at around 1.45 p m local time.

Police said that they pulled Judge Salaam's fully clothed body from the water and pronounced her dead at the scene. She was identified by her family. The body has been sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Salaam was a judge of the Court of Appeals when New York Governor Mario Cuomo named her to the state's high court in 2013.

She was a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia Law School.