Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Authorities have arrested a 41-year-old man in connection to the brutal killing of an aspiring model who was found in September bound and stuffed in a refrigerator in her Los Angeles apartment.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Wednesday that officers arrested Magnus Daniel Humphrey at his Minnesota home under an unrelated federal warrant.
"The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office filed murder charges against Humphrey," the department said in a statement. "Humphrey waived extradition and will be transported back to Los Angeles to face charges."
Humphrey is accused of murdering Maleesa Mooney, whose body was found inside her downtown Los Angeles apartment on Sept. 12 at about 3:54 p.m. by LAPD uniformed officers responding to a call for a welfare check at the 200 block of South Figueroa Street.
Related
The autopsy report states she died of blunt force trauma.
The document explains Mooney was last seen alive in surveillance video at her apartment complex on the afternoon of Sept. 6, and it was her mother who had called police six days later to perform the welfare check.
The officers found her body stuffed inside a refrigerator that had blood pooled underneath, according to the report.
"Her wrists were bound together, her ankles were bound together and these bindings were tied to each other behind her back with miscellaneous electronic cords and clothing items," the report states.
"An apparent gag, fashioned out of an article of clothing, was stuffed in her mouth."
It said that though the injuries she sustained are generally not considered acutely life-threatening, but based on how she was found they suggest "she was likely involved in a violent physical altercation prior to her death."
Toxicology testing found recent use of cocaine but the autopsy report said it was uncertain if drugs or alcohol played a role in her death.
The brief Wednesday statement did not state Humphrey's connection to the victim, only that he "is on federal probation for narcotics offenses."
