Missing model Irma Sabanovic found drowned as her car is pulled from Chicago River

A model who went missing earlier this month was found dead after her car was pulled from the Chicago River on Saturday.

Authorities confirmed on Sunday that the body was that of 25-year-old beauty Irma Sabanovic, who modelled under the name Ira Blackbird.

An autopsy revealed that Miss Sabanovic had drowned inside her Ford Focus.

Chicago police had issued a missing persons alert on May 16.

Miss Sabanovic was last heard of four days before that when she was on her way to a night club on Goose Island.

Sad scene: Police haul Irma Sabanovic's Ford Focus out of the Chicago River

The spot where she drowned was just two blocks from the club.

Miss Sabanovic, who one friend described as having a 'dignified, quiet beauty,' could be seen inside the blue Ford Focus when it was pulled from the river, according to a Chicago Tribune photographer who was at the scene.

The model, originally hailed from Bosnia, lived on a quiet, tree-lined street in the West Rogers Park area of Chicago, wit her father.

Camera friendly: Irma, who modelled under the name Ira Blackbird, was picking more professional work after expanding her portfolio

Her mother died of cancer in 2009.

The area is home to much of Chicago's Bosnian community and Miss Sabanovic had many friends close by.

On Friday night, her friends held a fundraiser for the missing woman at the Little Bucharest Bistro on the Northwest Side.

Neighbor and friend Sadija Suljkanovic said Miss Sabanovic could often by seen sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard of their apartment complex reading a book.

Mr Suljkanovic, 38, met her seven years ago after moving from Bosnia to Chicago, and was quickly struck by her stunning looks, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Growing conce: The Missing Person poster released by the Chicago Police Department.

He said: 'She was beautiful, my God,' adding that she had an easy smile 'like her mother.'

Mr Suljkanovic added that Miss Sabanovic and her father were due to fly to Bosnia to visit relatives.

'They had the plane tickets,' he said.

Now her twin sisters are planning to come to the U.S. from Bosnia to grieve with their father.

Mike White, a Chicago-based photographer, first met Miss Sabanovic two years ago when she approached him about expanding her portfolio.

He said: 'She had a dignified, quiet beauty that I think you have to be tuned in to it to see it, because it wasn't amplified or boisterous.'

Mr White was instantly struck by the rail-thin 5ft 7in stunner’s exotic looks and her confidence.

Mystery ending: Irma was last heard of on May 12, when she sent a friend a text message at 2am, saying she was lost

He said: 'Somebody else with her same looks wouldn't have even realized themselves for having modelling potential and she did, she embraced it.

'Her confidence made everything work, it made it all come together.'  

Mr White said he took hundreds of photos of Miss Sabanovic, which she used to propel herself to professional work.

He said: 'I think she was really highly regarded as sort of a hidden gem.

'So many people aspired to work with her based on the momentum that she had built over the last two years.

'She was the exact opposite of what you think a superficial model would be.

'She was so geniune ... one of the most genuine people I've ever met, and you didn't have to know her a lifetime to feel that way.'

On her Modelmayhem.com profile page, she described herself as 'a rebel of sorts amongst the sea of wannabes.'

She added: 'Off to Europe, May 16 until September 15.'

Tributes were on Sunday posted by friends and fellow models on her modelling page and on Facebook.