The body of Los Angeles model Maleesa Mooney was found in her refrigerator. Her mouth was tied shut and her wrists and ankles were tied together. There were also traces of cocaine in her system.
The LA County Medical Examiner’s Office had ruled her de*ath “ho*micidal violence” earlier this month. But a report from an autopsy done late Friday and obtained by The Post revealed the horrific details of how the 31-year-old woman’s body was found in her Downtown LA apartment.
Coroners found that Mooney had been hit in the face or head, back, and upper left arm.
She also had a mix of cocaethylene and ethanol in her system, along with benzoylecgonine, a substance that is made from cocaine.
According to the autopsy report, the blunt force traumatic injuries that were seen are not usually thought to be life-threatening on their own.
However, the way Ms. Mooney was found suggests that she was probably in a violent physical altercation before she died. Because of this, it is not clear what role drugs and/or alcohol may have played in Ms. Mooney’s de*ath, if any.
The model Mooney was found de*ad in her apartment on South Figueroa Street on September 12. Her mother had called the police to do a “welfare check” on her.
The police found a pool of blood under her d*ead body, which was “wedged in the refrigerator,” when they went into the apartment, according to the report.
Coroner’s officials said she was ki*lled because of the blunt force injuries they found all over her body and the way it was found.
There is also proof that the model was choked.
ABC 7 reported that Mooney’s iCloud had an alert that someone was using her devices. This made her family think that the person who ki*lled her was trying to sell her iPhone and MacBook.
Jourdin Pauline, Mooney’s sister, told KTLA that her sister was two months pregnant when she died and had always wanted to be a mom.
She told the news source, “It hurts me to think about what my sister went through; I can’t even imagine.”
Mooney had just moved into the high-end apartment building with about 450 units last month.
The de*ath of the stunning beauty made people in the area scared, especially since Nichole “Nikki” Coats, another model, was found de*ad in her own Downtown LA apartment about three miles away, two days before Mooney.
Coats’ family thought their beautiful 32-year-old daughter was also ki*lled, but an autopsy report released two days ago showed she died of an accidental mix of alcohol and cocaine.
Nikki’s dad, Guy Coats, told The Post that she looked so “busted” and “swollen” that other family members could only tell who she was by her tattoos.
It said that the only cause of de*ath was “cocaine and ethanol toxicity,” where ethanol means alcohol.
The LAPD said there was no proof that the de*aths of the models were linked.
