Curated By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: September 19, 2023, 13:59 IST
Los Angeles, United States of America (USA)
Maleesa Mooney (L) and Nichole Coats (R) were found dead within days in downtown LA. Their families suspect a serial killer is involved. (Image: Instagram/jourdinpauline/the_yvesdropper)
Models Maleesa Mooney and Nichole Coats’ deaths in downtown LA within a spate of one week, in their luxury apartments have triggered fears of a serial killer.
Maleesa Mooney and Nichole Coats, both of them professional models, were found dead in their respective apartments in Los Angeles last week. Mooney and Coats were found dead two days apart in the downtown LA luxury apartments. While Mooney was found dead on September 12, Coats was found dead two days before her on September 10.
The apartments are less than a kilometre away.
Officers found Mooney’s body in Bunker Hill when they were conducting a welfare check after her family couldn’t reach her. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) launched a murder probe and sought help from the public in identifying the person or people responsible for her death.
Officers also found Coat’s body in a similar fashion. They went to her home to conduct a welfare check on the morning of September 10 but no one responded. They received a call two hours later when someone reported a dead body at the home.
Coats’ death is not being investigated as a homicide, but her family believes she was murdered. “I believe it was murder, I really do. One of her legs was up in the air in a kicking position. That’s not somebody who just laid in their bed and died,” May Stevens, the woman’s aunt, said.
“This is senseless and I want some answers because my daughter is gone. And it’s not fair. I want everybody to find out who did this to her. She shouldn’t be gone,” Coats’ mother, Sharon Coats, said.
The cops are yet to confirm if these two deaths are connected. They said they are working to find out if both incidents are related.
The families, however, believe that the deaths are linked and highlighted that a serial killer could be looking for another target. “We just want to know what happened … It just doesn’t seem right … Is there a correlation between these two females? Is there a correlation? 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,” a relative of Coats said.
(with inputs from the Independent, KTLA and ABC7)
