Model found dead in L.A. apartment had been bound, gagged, and left in fridge
10/30/2023 2:29 pm PDT
LOS ANGELES (TCD) -- New information is coming out about the violent killing of a 31-year-old model found dead in her apartment last month, including that her body was discovered inside a refrigerator.
On Sept. 12 at just before 4 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers were called to the 200 block of South Figueroa Street to conduct a welfare check on Maleesa Mooney. When they went into the apartment, they found her deceased and opened a homicide investigation into her death.
According to the autopsy report published by KTLA-TV, Mooney was last seen alive Sept. 6 at her apartment building. Her mother called the LAPD on Sept. 12 and asked them to conduct a welfare check on Mooney. Officers used the property manager’s key to gain entry to Mooney’s apartment and discovered her inside the refrigerator with blood underneath the appliance. The report says Mooney’s wrists and ankles had been tied with "miscellaneous electronic cords and clothing items."
Clothing also covered Mooney’s face, and there was one piece inside her mouth.
The autopsy showed Mooney sustained major blunt force trauma to the head, face, back, and upper left arm. Her hands and wrists were tied together either before or during the killing.
The report says Mooney most likely had a "violent physical altercation prior to her death."
Mooney reportedly had cocaine in her system, but the medical examiner wrote the "role that drugs and/or alcohol may have played in Ms. Mooney’s death, if any, is uncertain."
The medical examiner determined Mooney’s cause of death was homicidal violence.
KTLA reports no one has been arrested yet. Mooney was reportedly two months pregnant when she was killed.
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