Two female models were found dead in their apartments in downtown Los Angeles only days apart from each other.
The Los Angeles Police Department said they found Maleesa Mooney, a 31-year-old model and real estate agent, Sept. 12 in her luxury apartment, according to KTLA. Mooney, a sister of the famous Guyanese pop star Jourdin Pauline, reportedly moved into the apartment only a month prior. (RELATED: Supermodel Kathy Ireland Opens Up About Finding Religion)
Mooney’s family alerted authorities after she suddenly stopped answering their calls and texts, KTLA reported. “When a week went by, we just knew something was off … Her messages weren’t delivering and we knew something was up because we all have a special relationship with Maleesa,” Bailey Babb, Mooney’s cousin, told the outlet.
Police informed KTLA that they were treating the case as a potential homicide.
Days later, police announced that another model had been found dead in her apartment, according to the outlet. Family discovered the second model, 32-year-old Nichole “Nikki” Coats, on Sept. 10 after a similar sudden lapse in communication. Coats’s family said they last heard from her about a date with someone Sept. 8, the outlet reported.
Coats’s cousin, Sheniya Mason, told ABC 7 that foul play is suspected. “It just didn’t look right to us … Didn’t look right how she was positioned in the bed. She was even unrecognizable … as if she’d been beat. They had to (identify) her by her tattoos,” Mason said.
Quest for answers: Families mourn 2 young models found dead in DTLA apartments, just days apart. Is there a connection? Latest details now on ABC7 https://t.co/DoImaGkipB pic.twitter.com/tUgO1yqyhY
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) September 18, 2023
The two deaths took place less than 3 miles apart from each other, KTLA reported.
“They were both almost in the same area… we need to make sure that this isn’t something else because it just didn’t seem right,” Mason said.