Gruesome new details have been revealed pertaining to the death of Los Angeles model Maleesa Mooney. The 31-year-old was discovered dead inside of the refrigerator in her apartment last month.
On September 12, Mooney was found by Los Angeles Police Department investigators after members of her family said they had not heard from her. Mooney’s cause of death death has yet to be released.
However, detectives did share that the Mooney’s death is being investigated as a homicide. The autopsy report showed that she was badly beaten, bound and gagged and placed inside of her refrigerator.
The model’s arms and legs were tied to each other behind her back “with miscellaneous electronic cords and clothing items,” Friday’s report released by the Los Angeles Department of the Medical Examiner showed.
In addition, several clothing items were wrapped around her face and neck. She was gagged by clothing that was stuffed inside of her mouth.
The report stated that Mooney suffered blunt force trauma which showed up as abrasions, cuts and contusions around her head and neck as well as her entire body.
The autopsy report also said there was blood on the floor outside of the refrigerator. The blunt force trauma injuries that Mooney sustained aren’t “considered acutely life threatening on their own,” the report stated.
“However, based on the circumstances of how Ms. Mooney was found, these injuries suggest she was likely involved in violent physical altercation prior to her death.”
Mooney’s body was discovered just two days after another Los Angeles-based model, Nichole Coats, 32, was found dead inside of her downtown apartment. Investigators quickly concluded that the deaths were not related.
Coats’ death was a result of “cocaine and ethanol toxicity,” according to an autopsy report. A suspect has yet to be identified in the case.