Police are investigating the murder of Maleesa Mooney, inset. (Screenshots from Los Angeles station KABC/YouTube)
An autopsy in the death of a model lays out the brutal way in which she was murdered in her Los Angeles home as investigators continue to hunt her killer.
Maleesa Mooney was found in her downtown Los Angeles apartment on Sept. 12. According to investigators, Mooney’s hands and ankles were bound, her mouth was gagged and her body was found stuffed inside a refrigerator, an autopsy performed by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office states. It was obtained by local affiliate KTLA.
Mooney was last seen on her surveillance video in her Skye at the Bunker Hill luxury apartment building on Sept. 6. Concerned for her well-being, her mother called police for a welfare check on Sept. 12. Officers entered with a property management’s key and found her body “wedged inside the refrigerator with pooled blood beneath it,” the autopsy said.
“Her wrists were bound together, her ankles were bound together and these bindings were tied to each other behind her back with miscellaneous electronic cords and clothing items,” the autopsy said. “Additional clothing items were around her face and neck. An apparent gag, fashioned out of an article of clothing, was stuffed in her mouth.”
She also suffered from blunt force injuries to her face, head, back and upper left arm. Those injuries are “generally not considered acutely life threatening on their own” but do indicate she was in a “violent physical altercation” before her death, medical examiners wrote. As for her cause of death, medical examiners say there is a “suspicion for homicidal asphyxia.” They don’t think the asphyxia was by strangulation but could have been through other means.
Toxicology reports also revealed Mooney had alcohol and cocaine in her system. Her killer remains on the loose.
As Law&Crime previously reported, family members are baffled.
“When a week went by, we just knew something was off,” said Bailey Babb, Mooney’s cousin, told KTLA. “Her messages weren’t delivering, and we knew something was up because we all have a special relationship with Maleesa.”
Mooney’s sister, Jourdin Pauline, told the station she was “a peacemaker in our family, someone that’s always been the backbone, and making sure everyone’s getting together, loving on each other. So this is a really big piece of us that’s gone now.”
Pauline told local station KABC that whoever killed her stole her belongings.
“They’re trying to sell her iPhone and her MacBook,” Pauline told the station. “Her iCloud had an alert like she was on.
“To have someone do what they did to my sister, to that caliber, is sick. It’s demented.”
On Instagram, Pauline said her heart is crushed.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d have to make this post,” she said. “I can’t believe you won’t be here with us anymore. You were so loving and so kind to everyone.”
“This is so sick. I can’t believe my baby big sister is gone!!!!! The reason I’m me is because of you!!!”
Jason Kandel contributed to this report.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
