LOS ANGELES — The deaths of two models whose bodies were found in their respective downtown apartments within days are unrelated, and only one is being investigated as a homicide, police said Monday. .
Maleesa Mooney, sister of Guyanese pop star Jourdin Pauline, was found dead on September 12, shortly before 4 p.m., by police responding to a call for a welfare check. She also worked as a real estate agent.
A second model, Nichole Coats, 32, was found dead two days earlier in her apartment about a mile from where Mooney, 31, was killed.
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating Mooney’s death as a homicide, but is awaiting the county medical examiner’s report on Coats to determine whether to investigate his death, the LAPD spokesman said. Tony Im.
The move angered Coats’ relatives, who said she appeared to have died violently.
“I think it was murder, I really do,” Coats’ aunt, May Stevens, told KTLA, a Los Angeles television station. “One of his legs was in the air in a kicking position. This is not someone who just laid down in bed and died.
Police said the deaths were unrelated despite apparent similarities between the women, including their age, occupation and address.
“We can’t assume certain things,” Im said. “We’re not going to jump to conclusions because we don’t know what happened.”
There is no immediate threat to the public, he added.
Mooney’s sister took to social media over the weekend to share her grief and started the hashtag #JUSTICEFORMALEESA to help find the killer.
“I keep waking up crying thinking I’m in a bad dream, we will get justice for you sister, I promise you won’t go in vain!!! The people you have touched and loved will continue for you and keep your name alive in the most beautiful and loving light,” Pauline wrote on Instagram. “You didn’t deserve this at all.”
