Los Angeles (TCD) — A 41-year-old Minnesota man was arrested this week on charges of torturing and killing a model last year, then tying her up and leaving her body in the refrigerator of his apartment.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced on Wednesday, February 21 that Magnus Daniel Humphrey was arrested at his home in Hopkins, Minnesota on an unrelated federal warrant, but he will be extradited to Los Angeles to face murder charges. Malesa Mooney. KABC-TV reported that he was also accused of torture. Humphrey was on probation for drug-related offenses at the time of his arrest.
Mooney was found dead on September 12, 2023, in his apartment located in the 200 block of Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles.
According to an autopsy report shared by KTLA-TV, Mooney suffered blunt force trauma, bruises and abrasions throughout her body. The coroner said Mooney's injuries “are generally not considered seriously life-threatening in and of themselves,” but “the circumstances in which Mooney was found indicate that these injuries suggest she may have been involved in a violent physical altercation prior to her death.” “It suggests there is a possibility,” he said. “
Mooney was last seen under surveillance at his apartment on September 9, 2023. Mooney's mother contacted police on September 12 to ask for a welfare check on her, and police used the property manager's key to get inside her and found her body 'stuck inside the refrigerator'. “There’s blood pooling underneath it.”
According to the autopsy report, Mooney's wrists and ankles were tied behind her back with electrical cords and clothing. A gag made from scraps of her clothing was placed in her mouth. The binding was reportedly applied after her death.
There were traces of cocaine and ethanol in Mooney's system, according to the report, but it was “unclear” whether those drugs played a role in her death.
Mooney most likely died of homicidal asphyxiation, but the coroner said the cause of her death was determined to be homicidal violence due to lack of “knowledge of a clear mechanism of death or sequence of events that led to Ms. Mooney's death.”
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