A Minnesota convicted felon was arrested Wednesday in the murder of a Los Angeles-based model who was stuffed inside her refrigerator, her mouth gagged and wrists and ankles bound together.
Maleesa Mooney, 31, sister of Guyanese pop star Jourdin Pauline, was found dead on Sept. 12, 2023 when LAPD conducted a welfare check at her luxury apartment in downtown Los Angeles.
Magnus Daniel Humphrey was picked up by police at his Hopkins, Minn. home on an unrelated warrant and was identified as the “suspect responsible” for Mooney’s brutal slaying.
“The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against Humphrey,” the LAPD said in a statement. “Humphrey waived extradition and will be transported back to Los Angeles to face charges.”
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An arrest was made in the death of Los Angeles-based model Maleesa Mooney, who was found dead in her apartment inside a refrigerator on Sept. 12, 2023. Jourdin Pauline/Instagram
The murder charge includes a special allegation of murder during the commission of torture, according to FOX 11 LA, citing court records.
Investigators have not revealed the relationship between Humphrey, 41, and Mooney.
He had been on probation for federal narcotic offenses after being released from prison on Feb. 7, according to Justice Department records.
Humphrey has been convicted of several felonies in Minnesota and Illinois, including for gun charges, assaults, sexual assaults, and false imprisonment, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Mooney worked as a real estate agent at Beverly Hills-based agency Nest Seeker and had only moved into her Skye at Bunker Hill unit a month before her death.
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Mooney, who worked as a real estate agent at Beverly Hills-based agency Nest Seekers, had only moved into her Skye at Bunker Hill unit a month before her death. Jourdin Pauline/Instagram
Mooney’s sister told local TV station KTLA at the time that her sister was two months pregnant when she died and had always wanted to be a mom.
“I can’t imagine what my sister went through and it pains me to even think about it,” Pauline told the outlet.
The model was last seen alive after surveillance cameras at her apartment complex captured her on Sept. 6, according to the outlet.
The LAPD conducted a welfare check on Mooney around 4 p.m. on Sept. 12, after her parents’ text messages were going unanswered, raising suspicions.
Police found Mooney’s body in the refrigerator and blood on the floor.
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Mooney was living at the Skye at Bunker Hill luxury apartments on Figueroa Street. KTLA 5
A coroner report found Mooney had suffered blunt force injuries to her face/head, back, and upper left arm
“The blunt force traumatic injuries observed at autopsy are generally not considered acutely life-threatening on their own,’ according to the autopsy report.
But the report considered the injuries and suggested Mooney had been in some form of dispute.
“However, based on the circumstances of how Ms. Mooney was found, these injuries suggest she was likely involved in a violent physical altercation prior to her death. Given this, the role that drugs and/or alcohol may have played in Ms. Mooney’s death, if any, is uncertain,” the report stated.
A makeshift memorial is set-up for Maleesa Mooney outside her apartment building on Sept. 20, 2023. AP
A toxicology report showed the model had benzoylecgonine —a cocaine metabolite in her system along with a mix of cocaethylene and ethanol.
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Her death came just two days after another model, Nichole “Nikki” Coats, was found dead inside her LA apartment on Grand Avenue.
The models’ deaths sparked fears of a serial killer as both were killed inside their downtown Los Angeles residences.
Coats’ death was ruled accidental as the cause was listed as “cocaine and ethanol toxicity.”
BREWSTER, Minn. — Lots of hugs were shared, tears were shed and utter shock was witnessed as a rural Minnesota family was surprised with the Best Christmas Ever early Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14.
More than two dozen people caravaned behind a Brewster Fire Truck to deliver gifts to Austin and Stephanie VandeKamp and their 6-year-old daughter, Callee, in Brewster, Minnesota, in Nobles County.
Friends and family join Best Christmas Ever committee members for a group photo before leaving the Brewster Fire Hall to deliver gifts to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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“We just came to bring some joy to your life,” said Sue Hagen, one of the local coordinators for the nationwide nonprofit
Best Christmas Ever organization,
which surprises families who have experienced hard times. “Last year, with the loss of Jaelee, none of these gifts we’re bringing to you will ever replace her, but we just thought that your family deserved a little joy this Christmas.”
The Vande Kamps gave birth to their daughter, Jaelee, on Feb. 4, 2024. Shortly thereafter, Jaelee was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, TAPVR (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return). She spent her first eight months in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she had 10 surgeries and ultimately required continuous dialysis.
Stephanie didn’t get to hold Jaelee until she was 50 days old, and stayed with Jaelee for much of her hospitalization. When she did come home, Austin would go to the hospital to stay with their youngest daughter.
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They were finally able to bring Jaelee home on Sept. 23, 2024. Because she was dependent on respiratory support, someone had to be awake with her 24/7, so Stephanie got very little sleep, family friend Ashley Prins detailed in the nomination letter she sent to Best Christmas Ever.
People wait in line bearing gifts to deliver to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025, in rural Brewster.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Jaelee died unexpectedly on Dec. 9, 2024, while attending regular follow-up appointments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jaelee’s death compounded the loss the family was still feeling from the sudden death of Stephanie’s dad from a heart attack on Easter morning 2022.
“The community just rallies around a family and they don’t even know who it will be,” Hagen said, noting that Bedford Industries, Sanford Worthington and District 518 were among employers who stepped up alongside community members to “help uplift a family.”
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Locally, the Best Christmas Ever program is sponsored by the Astrup Family Foundation, owner of Sterling Pharmacy stores, which provides $5,000 toward a life-changing gift for a local family who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. Business partners included Worthington Federal Savings Bank and Runnings who, along with Sterling Pharmacy, had giving trees set up at their businesses in recent weeks to accept gifts and monetary donations for the recipients.
The VandeKamps were nominated for the Best Christmas Ever program by family friend Ashley Prins.
“I would love to make this year a joyous season again for them in regards to holidays and I would love to see the three of them be able to get away on a vacation and enjoy their time together as they missed out on so much of that during this life struggle,” Prins wrote in her letter.
Stephanie, left, and Austin VandeKamp share a look as daughter, Callee, stands between them as they listen to Sue Hagen talk about the Best Christmas Ever program Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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In addition to a mound of neatly wrapped gifts — most of which were for Callee — the family was presented with a monetary gift of $7,403.07. The local Best Christmas Ever committee will work with the family on how the gift may be used.
“I don’t know what to say,” Austin said after accepting the money.
“Merry Christmas,” replied Chad Nixon, representing Worthington Federal Savings Bank.
Callee opened her largest box, which contained a child-sized recliner just for her, as well as two stuffed animals to match the chair. Stephanie and Austin received Minnesota Twins jerseys reflecting their favorite current Twins players.
Among the people on hand Sunday were last year’s recipients, the Adrian and Melissa Gonzalez family, of Worthington. The Gonzalezes lost their son, Emmitt, to cancer in September 2023.
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Hagen also presented the family with over $1,000 in gift cards to local businesses, and noted that donations are still coming in. The Best Christmas Ever committee will meet again with the Vande Kamps after Christmas, she said.
The VandeKamps were completely surprised by the gesture — after admitting a bit of fear as to why a fire truck with lights on and siren blaring pulled into their rural Brewster farmyard.
“I thought right away my barn was on fire, my lambs were running everywhere, then I saw a big wad of cars and I thought, ‘what’?” Austin said.
Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.
So Minnesota: Lego King of Minneapolis builds Minnesota landmarks one brick at a time
Many kids will find Lego sets under the Christmas tree this holiday season, but the popular toy isn’t just for children.
Jeff Esler fell in love with Legos as a child, and that love affair has never ended.
“I am the Lego king of Minneapolis,” Esler said. “So my friends call me.”
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A decade ago, Esler immortalized Nye’s Polonaise Room in Legos and posted it on Facebook.
“That one, it kind of went really viral,” Esler said. “I think I got 100,000 shares.”
Esler’s fame grew after he went on to use toy bricks to build mini masterpieces of Minnesota landmarks.
“I did Matt’s, and then I did Gluek’s,” Elser said. “I did the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in Cloquet. Then, probably the Split Rock Lighthouse. The Grain Belt sign.”
Each project costs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They take a ton of bricks and days to build. Esler has sold some models and given others away.
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“I do the landmarks, because they click with people,” Esler said.
Esler plans to keep building some of Minnesota’s most recognizable places one brick at a time.
Federal prosecutorsannounce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
