Maleesa Mooney, a model from Los Angeles, was found dead inside her refrigerator with her wrists and ankles bound together and her mouth gagged. Her system also had evidence of cocaine.
Her death was classified “homicidal violence” by the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office earlier this month, but an autopsy report released late Friday that The Post was able to obtain revealed the graphic specifics of how the 31-year-old’s remains were found in her Downtown LA apartment.
Mooney had blunt force injuries to her back, upper left arm, and face/head, according to coroners.
According to toxicology data, she also included a combination of ethanol and cocaethylene in her system, along with the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine.
“However, based on the circumstances of how Ms. Mooney was found, these injuries suggest she was likely involved in a violent physical altercation prior to her death. Given this, the role that drugs and/or alcohol may have played in Ms. Mooney’s death, if any, is uncertain,” the report stated.
Mooney was found dead in her South Figueroa Street apartment on Sept. 12 after her mother called cops to perform a “welfare check” on the model.
When officers entered the apartment, they found a pool of blood beneath her lifeless body, which was “wedged in the refrigerator,” according to the report.
Coroner officials determined that the manner of her death was homicide due to the blunt force injuries observed all over her body and the state in which it was found.
Additionally, there is proof that the model was choked.
Mooney’s family said ABC 7 that she had an iCloud warning indicating someone was using her devices, implying that her killer was attempting to pilfer her MacBook and iPhone.
Model Jourdin Pauline, Mooney’s sister, informed the local TV station KTLA that her sister had always wanted to be a mother and was two months pregnant when she passed away.
“I can’t imagine what my sister went through and it pains me to even think about it,” she told the outlet.
It was only last month that Mooney moved into the approximately 450-unit upscale apartment building.
Fear spread among the locals upon learning of the bombshell beauty’s passing, particularly when two days earlier another model, Nichole “Nikki” Coats, was also discovered dead in her own Downtown LA residence, around three miles away.
The family of Coats had been afraid that their beautiful 32-year-old daughter would also be killed, but an autopsy report that was made public two days ago revealed that the woman had actually overdosed on drugs and alcohol unintentionally.
Guy Coats, Nikki’s father, told The Post that other family members could only identify his daughter by her tattoos since Nikki was so “busted” and “swollen.”
Alcohol was included in the only cause of death, which was listed as “cocaine and ethanol toxicity.”
According to LAPD officers, there was no proof linking the models’ deaths to one another.
