LOS ANGELES – A woman working as a model was brutally murdered in her downtown Los Angeles apartment last September. Now police say they have a man in custody believed to be responsible for the homicide.
Magnus Daniel Humphrey, 41, was identified as a suspect in the murder of 31-year-old Maleesa Mooney. He was taken into custody on Wednesday at his home in Minnesota on an unrelated federal warrant, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Humphrey was already on probation for federal narcotics offenses when he was arrested, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported.
Law enforcement authorities said Mooney was found in her high-rise apartment in the 200 block of South Figueroa Street on Sept. 12 stuffed inside a refrigerator, severely beaten, bound and gagged.
Responding officers “found Ms. Mooney’s body wedged inside the refrigerator” with blood on the floor outside of it, according to the autopsy report.
Police made the discovery after family members asked officers to conduct a welfare check.
Mooney was found dead after family members sought a welfare check. (Jourdin Pauline/Instagram via New York Post)
Court records revealed the homicide charge against Humphrey includes a special allegation of murder during the commission of torture.
Security footage from the apartment building shows an unidentified male using Mooney’s key FOB to access the building’s elevator, then carrying plastic bags to her apartment. Mooney was last seen alive Sept. 6 on surveillance video, police confirmed.
However, authorities did not immediately release additional details on what led detectives to arrest Humphrey.
It’s not immediately clear when the defendant will be extradited to California and make an appearance in a Los Angeles courtroom. (A booking photo has not yet been made available.)
Mooney’s autopsy report revealed the woman’s body sustained blunt force trauma, including abrasions, lacerations and contusions around her head and neck, body and extremities, FOX 11 reported.
The victim’s wrists and ankles were bound, “and these bindings were tied to each other behind her back with miscellaneous electronic cords and clothing items. Additional clothing items were found around her face and neck. An apparent gag, fashioned out of an article of clothing, was stuffed in her mouth,” the report said.
Toxicology testing revealed evidence of recent cocaine use, according to the Medical Examiner’s report.
Blunt force trauma injuries suffered by the victim “are generally not considered acutely life-threatening on their own.”
However, the report also indicates that suffocation may have played a role in Mooney’s death, and the extent that alcohol or drugs may have played “is uncertain.”
Nevertheless, what is abundantly clear is that Mooney suffered a violent physical attack prior to her death, and the case was ruled a homicide.
In the immediate aftermath of Mooney’s death, her sister, pop singer Jourdin Pauline, described the model as a kind, loving person and the entire ordeal seems to be a mystery, Law Officer reported last year.
“Maleesa has always been someone who is a peacemaker in our family, someone that’s always been the backbone, and making sure everyone’s getting together, loving on each other,” Pauline told KTLA. “So this is a really big piece of us that’s gone now.”
Pauline also posted a tribute to her sibling on Instagram, according to FOX 11.
“My heart is crushed, I can’t believe you won’t be here with us anymore. You were so loving and so kind to everyone. You made sure if you ate everyone around you was too. You opened your arms to people who didn’t deserve you as a friend. You’re the best thing to happen to almost everyone’s lives you touched!!!”
According to Mooney’s family, she was two months pregnant when she was murdered.
