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Tag: sister

  • She died in the Eaton fire. Her family says emergency alert software was to blame

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    Attorneys representing the family of Stacey Darden, an Altadena resident who perished in the Eaton fire, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday alleging that the software that Los Angeles County uses for emergency alerts was defective and failed to alert her to leave in time.

    The complaint, filed more than 10 months after the Eaton fire engulfed Altadena, targets the emergency alert software company Genasys and blames the company’s predesigned evacuation zones, or “polygons,” for keeping residents east of Lake Avenue from getting timely evacuation orders the night of the fire.

    Although the lawsuit also blames the Southern California Edison utility company for starting the fire with its equipment, like several other lawsuits filed in the wake of the deadly blaze, it is among the first to focus on how evacuation orders failed to reach a large swath of residents.

    A spokesperson for Genasys said the company’s attorneys were reviewing the complaint. “Genasys denies any wrongdoing and will vigorously defend itself against these allegations,” the spokesperson said.

    Gerry Darden, the sister of Stacey Darden, said her family thought long and hard about the decision to bring a complaint against Genasys for her sister’s death.

    “Edison started this fire, and Genasys never warned her that she was in danger,” Darden said in a statement. “My sister was studiously following the evacuation orders the night of the Eaton Fire. The truth is that if these companies had done what they were supposed to do, Stacey would be alive today.”

    The morning sun peeks through the smoke from the Altadena fire as seen from Sylmar on Jan. 8.

    (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

    On Jan. 7, Los Angeles emergency officials and fire responders were quickly overwhelmed when extreme red flag conditions ignited a spate of devastating fires across the region, from the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Gabriel Mountains. When flames erupted near Eaton Canyon around 6:30 p.m., erratic hurricane-force winds carried red-hot embers for miles, igniting countless small fires that ultimately destroyed thousands of homes. Nineteen people in Altadena died.

    In the fire’s aftermath, The Times reported that residents of west Altadena did not get electronic evacuation orders until hours after the fire had started and engulfed the area. All but one of the 19 deaths from the Eaton fire occurred west of Lake Avenue, where residents did not receive evacuation warnings until around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 8, at least six hours after their neighbors on the other side of the Lake Avenue began to get alerts.

    At a news conference at Altadena’s main library, Doug Boxer, an attorney working with L.A. Fire Justice, said Stacey Darden, 54, and her sister Gerry were on high alert when the Eaton fire ignited and were constantly monitoring the news for information on evacuation zones.

    Darden’s Altadena home — 2528 Marengo Ave., about five blocks west of Lake Avenue — was not included in an evacuation order zone, or “polygon,” Boxer said.

    According to the lawsuit, the only evacuation order for Darden’s neighborhood did not hit her cellphone until 5:43 a.m. on Jan. 8. Her last cellphone activity, it said, is believed to be more than two hours earlier, around 3:30 a.m.

    “By the time an evacuation order was finally pushed to her phone, it was too late,” attorney Mikal Watts said in a statement. “This is not a tragedy of bad luck, this is a tragedy of corporate failures.”

    “At its core, this is really a case of digital redlining,” Watts said at the news conference, referring to Lake Avenue’s historic role as a boundary for racial redlining in Altadena.

    The suit seeks to answer a question that the company, the county, and its after-action report have thus far been unable to answer: Why were alerts for residents west of Lake Avenue delayed?

    An Emergency Alert evacuation warning on the Apple iphone15 of Dylan Stewart of Riverside, Calif.

    An evacuation warning from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

    (Kirby Lee / Getty Images)

    Since January, several neighborhood groups in Altadena have rallied around the issue of late alerts, pressing county officials for answers as to why the historically marginalized west side of town received alerts so much later than the comparatively more affluent, whiter east side.

    The complaint alleges that Genasys entered into a contract to provide L.A. County with a mass notification software system that county officials could use to alert residents in the case of emergencies and had a duty to provide a system that was “safe in its operation for its intended purpose” and “free of defects in its design and manufacture.”

    It argues, however, that Genasys’ system was “defective and unreasonably dangerous,” because of its predefined evacuation zones, which determine how alerts are rolled out onto cellphones and other technology in a given area. According to the suit, the zones did not take into consideration vulnerable populations including the sick and elderly, who need more time to evacuate.

    A recent state report highlighted a number of issues with senior facility operators and their inability to evacuate all of their residents as the emergency unfolded.

    As missteps around the Eaton fire response have come to light and questions of who is responsible have mounted, officials with Genasys have maintained that their company’s software did not fail during the fire.

    In March, Richard Danforth, the chief executive of Genasys, told stockholders in a Zoom meeting “the system was up and operational.”

    According to a county-supported after-action report from the McChrystal Group, most of the issues with alerts in the Eaton fire were due to human error, not technological issues.

    At the time of the fire, the Genasys software was new to L.A. County and only a handful of staff members at the county Office of Emergency Management had been trained to use it before the fires broke out, the report stated.

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    Jenny Jarvie, Terry Castleman

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  • Sister advocates for safety improvements after tragic accident in Marion County

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    Shanta Norton is pushing to support safety in her community and other rural areas after the death of her younger sister Shannon Rush earlier this week. She’s dubbed the petition “Shannon’s Law,” which has already gained 2,000 signatures in a matter of days. Rush was a senior at Forest High School and her family said she wanted to someday become a school teacher. On Monday, around 6:20 in the morning, while walking to the bus stop on Blitchton Road, Rush was hit by an SUV. “She was just a bright, goofy person and made us laugh constantly,” she said. “She was a light to our family.”Now, Norton is pushing to have sidewalks, adequate street lighting and signage along the roadway where her sister died and neighboring streets.”I just want something to happen that you can see along the roadway in different parts of the town, not just this neighborhood. The street lights are very dim, and it’s very dark walking in these places,” said Norton.The SUV driver claimed Rush was walking in the roadway and not on the grassy part of the road when they collided. Family members no longer believe Rushing was wearing headphones during the accident. Norton is also concerned about speeding on that stretch of road. “Since this happened, I’ve been standing in my driveway every morning at 6 a.m. Trailers and SUVs are doing at least 50, 60 (mph) coming off of 10th street,” said Norton. Norton knows the changes she’s pushing for won’t bring her sister back, but she hopes it will do something to improve safety in her community and prevent others from enduring the same pain. Click here to learn more about the petition for Shannon’s Law.

    MARION COUNTY, Fla. —

    Shanta Norton is pushing to support safety in her community and other rural areas after the death of her younger sister Shannon Rush earlier this week. She’s dubbed the petition “Shannon’s Law,” which has already gained 2,000 signatures in a matter of days.

    Rush was a senior at Forest High School and her family said she wanted to someday become a school teacher.

    On Monday, around 6:20 in the morning, while walking to the bus stop on Blitchton Road, Rush was hit by an SUV.

    “She was just a bright, goofy person and made us laugh constantly,” she said. “She was a light to our family.”

    Now, Norton is pushing to have sidewalks, adequate street lighting and signage along the roadway where her sister died and neighboring streets.

    “I just want something to happen that you can see along the roadway in different parts of the town, not just this neighborhood. The street lights are very dim, and it’s very dark walking in these places,” said Norton.

    The SUV driver claimed Rush was walking in the roadway and not on the grassy part of the road when they collided.

    Family members no longer believe Rushing was wearing headphones during the accident.

    Norton is also concerned about speeding on that stretch of road.

    “Since this happened, I’ve been standing in my driveway every morning at 6 a.m. Trailers and SUVs are doing at least 50, 60 (mph) coming off of 10th street,” said Norton.

    Norton knows the changes she’s pushing for won’t bring her sister back, but she hopes it will do something to improve safety in her community and prevent others from enduring the same pain.

    Click here to learn more about the petition for Shannon’s Law.

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  • Kim Kardashian and sister visit Northern California inmate fire camp

    Kim Kardashian and sister visit Northern California inmate fire camp

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    Kim Kardashian, who in recent years has become an advocate for criminal justice reform, paid a visit last week to a camp in the mountains of Northern California where incarcerated men serve as firefighters, often deploying to the front lines of the state’s biggest blazes.

    The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection posted photos of the visit, saying Kardashian had visited Growlersburg Camp No. 33 in El Dorado County and met with several crews to “learn more about the program and show support.” The camp, Cal Fire noted, is jointly operated by the California Department of Corrections and Cal Fire. Incarcerated people are trained to pursue careers in firefighting upon their release, the post said.

    Kardashian, who was accompanied by her sister Kendall Jenner, later posted more photos of her visit on her own Instagram account, which, with 361 million followers, attracts quite a bit more attention than Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado Facebook page. Kardashian wore a black shoulderless turtleneck and black sneakers; the firefighters wore orange fire-protective jumpsuits with heavy-duty boots.

    “These incredible men are incarcerated firefighters saving our state, homes and communities from fire,” she wrote, adding that the firefighters can expunge their felony records and “go into firefighting” when they get out.

    Several people jumped into the comments section on Kardashian’s post to exclaim that they had spotted their family members in the photos.

    “That’s my son in the back in the 5th picture,” one woman wrote. “Thank you for rooting for those boys.”

    Kardashian, who became a worldwide celebrity thanks to her family’s reality show and social media, met with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House for a roundtable on criminal justice reform earlier this year. And last week, she announced on her Instagram page that she had recently visited the Department of Justice in Washington to discuss prisoners “who have taken accountability for their crimes … and are ready to come home from our prisons and be with their families.”

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    Jessica Garrison

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  • Investors bought a historic Echo Park home. Sisters who have lived there since childhood are fighting to stay

    Investors bought a historic Echo Park home. Sisters who have lived there since childhood are fighting to stay

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    Lupe Breard remembers coming to live in the Queen Anne Victorian house in Echo Park with her mother and siblings when she was a child. The memory is still vivid decades later, she says, because she didn’t want to move there — until she saw the chimney and told herself Santa Claus could bring presents down it at Christmas. She’d never had a fireplace before.

    She has stayed ever since, raising her three children in the historic home and watching as the neighborhood changed from a quiet, under-the-radar community to one where homes routinely sell for well over $1 million.

    Breard stayed even after her mother died in 2018, leaving the house in her will to three of Breard’s older siblings. She stayed after the family estate tried, unsuccessfully, to evict her. And she has continued fighting to stay after the house was sold in 2022 to an investor who wants her and her sister, Sarah Padilla, 73, out.

    Inside Lupe Breard’s Echo Park home, various rooms are filled with decades of belongings that she sought to sell in case she had to leave.

    (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

    Over the years, Breard, 64, has come to see herself as the guardian of a historic house with an important history. “The Queen of Elysian Heights,” as it is now known, is one of the earliest homes built in Echo Park. In the 1960s it was owned by members of the Arechiga family, who moved there after they drew national attention as the final holdouts resisting eviction from their home in Chavez Ravine to make way for Dodger Stadium.

    “I know that once I’m gone it’ll be impossible to defend it,” Breard says. “I love that house. I love the walls. I love the staircase. I love walking out on the balcony at night when you can see the stars. I love the brick underneath the house where I used to hide when I was little.”

    The history of the Queen of Elysian Heights is not entirely clear, but it is believed to have been built in 1895, around the time when the community was first subdivided.

    Many locals see the triplex as the cornerstone of a historic neighborhood whose connection to the Arechiga family serves as an important reminder of a dark moment in the city’s past. Though it was once stadiums, freeways and city redevelopment that regularly displaced people in Black and Latino neighborhoods, today it is more likely to be gentrification and residential real estate investors.

    “The house is very special,” said Paul Bowers, a resident of the neighborhood who helped petition the city for historic status. “It’s the first house in this entire area. And there’s something magical about it.”

    A sign that says "Protect Echo Park Elders" hangs on a fence.

    A sign hangs in support of Lupe Breard, 64, who faced eviction in Echo Park.

    (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

    Breard’s mother was a waitress at a restaurant near Placita Olvera who stretched her tips to make ends meet. She rented the house for a few years, then bought it in 1975 for $18,500, according to public records. The neighborhood was quiet.

    “You really had to tell people where Echo Park was,” Breard says.

    Breard continued living in the home as an adult and raised her children there alongside her mother. Breard and her older sister, Sarah Padilla, lived in separate units in the triplex at the time of their mother’s death in 2018.

    Soon after, Breard says, she learned that she and another sister had been excluded from their mother’s will. The home had been left to Padilla and two other siblings. Their older brother was named executor of the estate. Family representatives of the estate did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment.

    Soon, plans were in motion to sell the house, which over the years had grown to be valued at more than $1 million.

    Breard says she feared that she would be evicted and the house would be torn down to make room for apartments or condos. She saw it as history repeating itself. She, like the Arechigas, would soon be ripped from her home.

    “It’s not just an apartment you rent. I grew up there. It took part in raising me,” she said.

    Members of the LA Tenants Union were on hand during a recent yard sale to support Lupe Breard

    Members of the LA Tenants Union were on hand during a recent yard sale to support Lupe Breard, who was facing eviction.

    (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

    She began organizing with the LA Tenants Union and along with other supporters worked to file an application to have the property designated a historic-cultural monument with the city planning department, hoping that it would deter a developer from buying the property and tearing it down.

    The estate framed the moves as stalling tactics meant to keep the house from being sold, according to court records.

    Breard’s supporters circulated a petition calling for a show of community support so that the sisters could remain in the house and for “the rejection of tearing it down for future development projects.”

    When the home went up for auction in the spring of 2022 there were multiple bidders. It sold for a little more than $1.2 million to NELA Development. Padilla, who according to court records refused to cooperate with the sale, received about $290,000 when the estate was settled.

    “Buyer to be aware that the property will be delivered with its current occupants who are not paying rent,” read a notification issued with the sale.

    Padilla did not respond to requests for an interview. Representatives for NELA also did not return emails and phone calls requesting comment. The company bills itself on its website as a “family-run real estate and investment company dedicated to preserving and enhancing the many precious neighborhoods that make Los Angeles a special place to live, work and play.”

    Charles Fisher, a historian who prepared the application for the home’s historic designation, said the company has been a good caretaker for historic homes in the past.

    It “has got a fairly good track record in dealing with historic properties,” he said. “They’ve bought houses and fixed them up properly.”

    He noted that the company had received an award from the Highland Park Heritage Trust for its work fixing and preserving two local homes.

    In June 2022, shortly after the company purchased the home, Breard was given a three-day notice to “perform or quit.” It said that she had “failed and refused to permit an appraiser or other workmen to enter the property” and gave her three days to do so or face eviction.

    One month later, the property management company filed an eviction case against her in court, saying she had not complied with the notice.

    Breard says she was never given the opportunity to comply. In November 2022, with the eviction pending, the home won the historic designation from the city over the new owner’s objection.

    In January, a jury ruled against Breard in the eviction case, setting the stage for sheriff’s deputies to soon arrive and lock her out of the house.

    Not long after, Breard saw a video posted to Facebook by the new owners, with the hashtag #realestateinvesting.

    “Super excited to announce our first project for 2024,” a man says, standing in front of the house, its pastel facade looking worn but stately.

    “This house here in Echo Park is absolutely amazing. It’s a Queen Anne Victorian … Let us know if you have any questions or if you’d like the private viewing of this property.”

    Breard began preparing for the possibility that she would have to leave the home, though she wasn’t sure where she would go. She is disabled and cannot work, she said.

    This month, Breard hosted a yard sale to get rid of many of the possessions that filled the house over the decades.

    A couple of days later, she got some good news. A new attorney representing her had asked the judge to set aside the jury’s decision, arguing, among other issues, that the notice to quit had been defective as it never gave Breard specific instructions on how to fix the alleged lease violation.

    The judge ruled in her favor, putting an end to the eviction proceeding.

    After the ruling, Breard said, she went to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and gave thanks at the tomb of St. Vibiana, the city’s patron saint. From her perspective, the win was a victory for a city where people without money are constantly being pushed out.

    “I love Los Angeles, it’s my home,” she said. But “this is happening to so many people. You see people on the street and nobody even looks at them.”

    Despite the win, the home’s future is still unclear. Breard’s sister still has a pending eviction case.

    A pale green Victorian home seen from a distance.

    “The Queen of Elysian Heights” is one of the oldest homes in Echo Park.

    (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

    Lupita Limón Corrales, an organizer with the LA Tenants Union, said a lawyer for the owner reached out to them and raised the possibility of selling the property to a community land trust, which would create a nonprofit that would be responsible for the home. The lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

    Corrales said the group is working with the sisters to come up with a proposal that it will present to the company.

    If it were to happen, it could take a long time, she said. For now, their main focus is helping Padilla win her pending eviction case.

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    Paloma Esquivel

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  • Julia Roberts’ Sister Blamed Star In Suicide Note – And So Does Her Fiancé 10 Years Later – Perez Hilton

    Julia Roberts’ Sister Blamed Star In Suicide Note – And So Does Her Fiancé 10 Years Later – Perez Hilton

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    [Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

    We have a rare update today on a story from way back in 2014. In fact, it’s from exactly ten years ago.

    For those who don’t know, Julia Roberts‘ sister Nancy Motes tragically died by suicide on February 9, 2014. At the time, word was she had written a lengthy note — and in it had basically blamed her movie star sister. A source told the NY Daily News that an EMT found a 5-page note in which there “were three pages of rantings that her sister drove her to do this.”

    Important to note: Mental health experts advise mental illness is complex, and no one event or person should be seen as the cause for another’s suicide.

    It was an awful thing to hear, but it did match what Nancy was saying online. She had infamously tweeted just four months earlier:

    “So my ‘sister’ said that with all her friends & fans she doesn’t need anymore love. Just so you all know ‘America’s Sweetheart’ is a BITCH!!”

    We can’t imagine having such a falling out with a sibling. After Nancy’s passing, her fiancé John Dilbeck seemed to be looking for peace, even if it was too late for his love. He put out a statement saying his late beloved really did love her family still:

    “John Dilbeck and his extended family would like to express their heartfelt condolences to all of Nancy Motes’ family and friends. We loved her dearly and will miss her always. Please know that the words she wrote in online venues were those of someone in pain who loved her family and longed for a closer bond with them.”

    But now he’s changed his tune. The years have apparently only made him feel more inclined to hold resentment toward Julia for what happened with Nancy.

    Related: Kurt Cobain’s Alleged Autopsy Leaks After 30 Years — With New Drug Details

    In his part of the note — which was apparently a total of 13 pages, with some of it going directly to Julia and some directly to their mother Betty — Nancy did mention her disdain for her sister. She wrote in a section willing her earthly possessions to John:

    “My mother and so-called ‘siblings’ get nothing except the memory that they are the ones that drove me into the deepest depression I’ve ever been in.”

    Nancy’s death haunts John. Even 10 years later, time has not come close to healing this wound. He tells DailyMail.com on Friday:

    “It feels like I’ve been trapped in a coma. Life kind of stopped, the whole world fell apart after her death. I never recovered. You know, I’ve never had another serious relationship. Even after ten years, I’m devastated. Nancy was the world to me. It’s a hole in my soul. I just feel so empty and incomplete without her. They say you’re really fortunate if you ever find one soulmate in a life and maybe that was it. I still try to be hopeful, but here we are a decade later. It doesn’t feel that long, it feels like a blur. Once Nancy died, the pieces never got back together. I never found another solution. My life was very much ruined because I thought that was my future.”

    So sad…

    Julia has never spoken about her sister’s death publicly. And less than a month afterward she was sharing her megawatt smile at the Oscars, taking part in Ellen DeGeneres‘ internet-breaking selfie.

    Living 10 years with the contents of that note — and nothing from Julia to change his mind — he’s come to believe Nancy’s version of events. He says:

    “The note makes it very clear how horrible and wretched Julia had tormented Nancy her whole life. It showed the despair Nancy felt. It’s so heartbreaking. Anyone could see why someone In Nancy’s position had been pushed so far that the only way to escape her torment was to take her own life. That’s clearly what Nancy believed.”

    Now he believes Julia was to blame — and if she really is such a horrible human being, he assumed one day the other shoe would drop:

    “So many people have been outed, the toxic stars, I’ve been waiting for Julia to fall, I felt like it was a matter of time. But now that story gets overshadowed by other scandalous events, which seem to happen on a weekly basis, we just move onto the next scandal.”

    Maybe this interview is to step into that shoe and take the next step himself? He certainly expresses a deep pain:

    “I still feel resentful, anger. The wound doesn’t go away, it doesn’t heal. I can’t even forgive Julia for all that she’s done, because she lives in a fantasy bubble, where she would just deny everything.”

    Why would he think that?

    Damn, Kevin Spacey AND Jared Leto? That photo really didn’t age well…

    Anyway, John continues:

    “Nancy was made to look like some sort of drug addict that died of an overdose, which it turns out was never the case. The prescription medication was used by Nancy as a means to an end. Julia drove her into the deepest depression. But it’s a side of the story that’s kind of brushed off just like people don’t want to believe that Santa Claus isn’t real. At the time, Julia was the self-proclaimed American sweetheart – she is anything but.”

    John claims he was banned from the funeral, that the family kept the location from him and threatened anyone else who told him. He says he learned later Julia gave a eulogy he thought was “harsh,” in which she said wanted to wring her sister’s neck “because she didn’t wait to see the joy that comes with the morning.” He doesn’t think it was right:

    “I asked some friends afterwards what it was like, ‘Do you think that’s what Nancy would have wanted?’ And they all unanimously said, ‘Absolutely no, she would be appalled by it’. Everyone there said they felt very awkward especially when Julia got up to speak. It just adds insult to injury.”

    He still thinks the other shoe is coming, explaining:

    “But I believe she’s really got bad Karma coming. I’ve got to believe that somehow Karma has to get this woman. She is absolutely wretched.”

    Wow. He really isn’t trying to keep any sort of peace anymore. Such a devastating story.

    If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org.

    [Image via HBO/YouTube/Brian To/WENN.]



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    Perez Hilton

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  • 14-year-old boy accused of killing parents, injuring younger sister in Fresno County

    14-year-old boy accused of killing parents, injuring younger sister in Fresno County

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    A 14-year-old boy has been arrested this week on suspicion of killing his parents and critically injuring his younger sister in rural Fresno County, authorities said.

    The boy, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, faces two charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Detectives have not determined a motive in the case.

    The boy’s parents, Lue Yang and Se Vang, both 37, were found dead by officers in the family’s Miramonte home around 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said in the release. The boy’s 11-year-old sister “suffered major injuries” but is expected to survive.

    The boy placed a 911 call earlier to report that someone had broken into his home and attacked his mother, father and sister, then fled in a pickup truck, according to the news release. Detectives who spoke with the boy discovered “inconsistencies” with his story, determining he fabricated the story and had used “multiple weapons to attack his family members,” authorities said.

    A 7-year-old boy was also home during the attack, but was not physically injured, authorities said. Other family members are now caring for the boy.

    Officers had not previously received any calls for service to the family’s home, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni said during a news conference this week.

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    Debbie Truong

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  • Pregnant model was found dead inside her refrigerator with her wrists and ankles tied

    Pregnant model was found dead inside her refrigerator with her wrists and ankles tied

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    A pregnant model was found dead inside her refrigerator at her downtown L.A. apartment last month, her arms and legs bound, according to an autopsy report from the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Department.

    Maleesa Mooney, 31, was found dead Sept. 12 in her apartment in the 200 block of South Figueroa Street, authorities said. The medical examiner’s department ruled that she had died by “homicidal violence” inflicted by others. Her family confirmed that she was two months pregnant at the time of her death.

    According to the autopsy report, Mooney was last seen on video surveillance at her apartment complex on Sept. 6. Six days later, her mother requested a welfare check and police entered the apartment using a property management’s key. Police have yet to announce suspects or motive in the crime.

    Police discovered Mooney wedged inside the refrigerator with blood beneath her body; her wrists and ankles were bound and the bindings were tied behind her back with electrical cords and clothing. More clothing was found around her neck and face and her mouth had been gagged, according to the report.

    Mooney had blunt-force trauma injuries to her head, neck and torso, as well as her arms, wrists and ankles, according to the report. Trace amounts of alcohol and cocaine were found in Mooney’s system, although the medical examiner wrote in the report that it’s “uncertain” if the substances played a part in her death due to her extensive injuries.

    “Based on the circumstances of how Ms. Mooney was found, these injuries suggest she was likely involved in violent physical altercation prior to her death,” the examiner wrote.

    In an interview with The Times, Jordan Pauline, 24, Mooney’s sister, said she last spoke with her sister on Aug. 23, her birthday. Mooney had recently come back from a trip to Miami and had just moved into a new apartment. She was planning to get the rest of her belongings from her mother’s house, and when her family didn’t hear from her, they got concerned and asked police to do a wellness check.

    According to Pauline, police knocked on Mooney’s door and left a card when they didn’t get a response. Mooney’s family went to her apartment a few days later but were told by the building managers that they weren’t allowed in. They called the police, who discovered Mooney’s apartment flooded and the air conditioning blasting. Pauline said her family had to wait downstairs for hours until police told them they had found a body but couldn’t identify who it was.

    “From her head to her toes, they did something monstrous to my sister,” said Pauline, a Los Angeles resident. “We had to have a closed casket — the mortuary had to bring in special people to put her together and do her makeup. We’re going to continue to have a closed casket because she has a big open gash in her head and half of her face, you can’t even make her out.

    “We waited four days until they identified her from fingerprints,” Pauline said. “There’s a lot of negligence with the police as well. The whole point is to go in and check on the person and they didn’t.”

    The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Mooney had FaceTimed their cousin on Sept. 6 and most likely died that same day or the next, according to Pauline, who has been in contact with family members. Mooney had gone out with friends to a bar in Santa Monica on Sept. 6 and hung out with them at her apartment until 3 or 4 a.m. They never heard from her again.

    Mooney’s phone and laptop had also been stolen, as well as a designer purse from her apartment, according to Pauline, who said that whoever killed her sister most likely knew her phone passcode and was sending her family “vague” texts. She didn’t elaborate on the text messages. They also found out that someone had put Mooney’s cellphone up for sale for $100.

    Pauline described her sister as a “bubbly, very soft-like, very girly girl.” Mooney worked as a Realtor for Nest Seekers, a Beverly Hills agency, for nearly two years. Mooney also modeled part time and was starting to take it more seriously before her death.

    “Overall she was an amazing cook, a loving, nurturing, kind person,” Pauline said. “Really the life of the party and an all-around good person. It sucks that she was robbed of all of her potential in this life and she can’t even have her kids and husband that she’s always wanted. She always wanted to have a family and be a mother and this is heartbreaking, that this is the end result, especially in this manner.”

    Mooney’s family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for legal fees and to start a foundation in Mooney’s honor. Pauline said she’s hoping there will be justice for her sister and for 32-year-old Nichole Coats, another model who two days before was also found dead in her apartment a few blocks away from Mooney.

    “Let’s find these people — whoever did it — so it doesn’t happen to another young girl,” Pauline said. “We’re all humans living our human experiences. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, for them to have to go through this pain.”

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    Summer Lin

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