Ingham County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kathaleen Rae Price died Sunday. She was 48.

Price managed a staff of 30 attorneys and specialized in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault and drug gang cases in her three years as the county’s No. 2 prosecutor.

“Kathy will be greatly missed by us all,” Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said in a written statement. “I will miss Kathy’s rare qualities of hard work and humanity. While she witnessed in the cases we prosecuted the worst in human behavior, she never lost her warmth, her sympathy for people and her sense of humor.

“There will always be an empty chair in the prosecutor’s office.”

Price rejoined the prosecutor’s office in 1997 after spending 16 years in private practice. She first worked for the office in 1976 as an intern before becoming an assistant prosecuting attorney after passing the bar in 1978.

Price most recently tried a case that resulted in a second-degree murder conviction.