[2] Franco served as a city councillor of the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro for the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) from January 2017 until her assassination.

On 14 March 2018, while in a car after delivering a speech in the north of Rio de Janeiro, Franco and her driver were shot multiple times[3] and killed by two[4] murderers travelling in another vehicle.

[7] Franco was raised in Maré, a slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, where she also resided for most of her life, and began to work to contribute to the household income in 1990 when she was 11 years[1] old.

[17][15] She also worked for civil society organizations, including the Brazil Foundation and the Maré Center for Solidarity Studies and Action.

[10] She chaired the Women's Defense Commission and formed part of a four-person committee that monitored the federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro.

"[25][26] The next day, Franco attended a round-table discussion titled "Young Black Women Moving [Power] Structures" (Portuguese: Jovens Negras Movendo Estruturas).

[27] Less than two hours after leaving the round-table, she and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were fatally shot by two men who were driving another car.

[25][28][29] Marcelo Freixo, a Rio de Janeiro legislative assembly member from PSOL who came to the scene shortly after hearing of her killing, determined that the bullets had been directed at her in a clear execution.

[32] In January 2019, police arrested Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira and issued a warrant for Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega, both suspects in Franco's assassination.

[39] On October 31, 2024, a court sentenced former police officers Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Vieira de Queiroz to 59 and 78 years in prison, respectively, for Franco's assassination.

[42] Journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose husband David Miranda was a fellow City Council member at the time of her assassination and was a close personal friend of Franco's,[43][44] listed what he referred to as the "most important subjects to cover" regarding Franco's assassination stating: "Her relentless and brave activism against the most lawless police battalions, her opposition to military intervention, and, most threateningly of all, her growing power as a black, gay woman from the favela seeking not to join Brazil's power structure, but to subvert it.

[55][56] In 2017, she moved to the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Tijuca with her partner, Monica Tereza Benicio, and her 18-year-old daughter, Luyara Santos.