A Los Angeles model found dead in a refrigerator in her apartment last month died by homicide, according to an autopsy report.
Los Angeles police found the body of Maleesa Mooney, 31, in her refrigerator on September 12 after her mother requested a welfare check because she hadn’t been in touch with her daughter.
Upon entering Mooney’s apartment, officers said food that’s normally refrigerated was out on the counter while the 31-year-old was inside the refrigerator with her wrists and ankles bound. Clothing was stuffed in Mooney’s mouth and wrapped around her neck.
Mooney was last seen alive on September 6, one day after she was spotted arriving at her residence with a woman and man, according to security and elevator footage. A man used Mooney’s security key to access elevators on September 7 and carried plastic bags to her apartment.
According to the autopsy report, Mooney suffered blunt force trauma to her head and neck, a “triangular” cut on her forehead, abrasions front and back, and marks from being tied up, per NBC News.
“These injuries suggest she was likely involved in violent physical altercation prior to her death,” the report states. “The cause of death is deemed homicidal violence.”
Drug tests indicated “recent cocaine use,” according to the report. However, “the role that drugs and/or alcohol may have played in Ms. Mooney’s death, if any, is uncertain.”
The Los Angeles Police Department is still investigating the incident. No suspects are currently in custody.
Some believed the mysterious death was connected to another Los Angeles model Nichole Coats, 32, who was found dead two days before Mooney’s body was discovered in an apartment roughly a mile away.
According to the medical examiner’s office, cocaine and ethanol toxicity caused Coats’ death.
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