Minnesota man arrested in connection to murder of Los Angeles model

A man suspected in the September 2023 murder of a 31-year-old woman in Los Angeles has been arrested, police said.

The Los Angeles Police Department announced Wednesday that Magnus Daniel Humphrey, 41, was arrested on a federal warrant for unrelated drug charges in Minnesota and is also suspected in the murder of Maleesa Mooney.

According to the LAPD, Humphrey is on federal probation for narcotics offenses.

Humphrey has waived extradition and will be taken back to Los Angeles where the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has since filed murder charges against him.

A street-side memorial for Maleesa Mooney, who was killed in her apartment, is displayed on Sept. 20, 2023, in downtown Los Angeles. On Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, a 41-year-old Minnesota man was arrested in connection with the September killing of Mooney, a model who was beaten, bound and stuffed inside the refrigerator of her downtown Los Angeles apartment, police say.

The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner listed Mooney's death as "homicidal violence."

Mooney, a model, was found beaten, bound, and stuffed inside her refrigerator on Sept. 12 after her family called for a welfare check, according to an autopsy report reviewed by USA TODAY.

Officers who entered Mooney's downtown Los Angeles apartment using a key from building management saw blood pooling underneath the refrigerator, the report said.

Officers found her body bound with electric cords. One of her ribs was fractured and she had multiple lacerations, abrasions, and contusions all over her head, torso and arms, the report said.

Humphrey Police have not released any additional information on what led them to connect Humphrey to Mooney's death.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minnesota man arrested in connection to Maleesa Mooney murder