Human remains ID’d as those of missing actress
Victim was last seen alive in Santa Clarita area; person of interest shot himself after police pursuit
Human remains found in a shallow grave in Northern California were confirmed Wednesday to be those of missing actress Adea Shabani.
Lieutenant Rob Bringolf, of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division, announced at 8 a.m. Wednesday: “During autopsy the decedent was positively identified through tattoos as Adea Shabani, 25, from Los Angeles.”
“The manner of death in this case has been determined to be homicide; however, the cause of death is still under investigation,” Bringolf said.
“It appears Ms. Shabani sustained blunt force trauma to her head, but final determination of cause is dependent upon toxicology and tissue analysis,” he added. “No other major trauma was observed on Ms. Shabani’s person.”
The remains were found Monday by Los Angeles Police Department detectives searching a shoreline in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Nevada County.
On Tuesday, they were able to recover those remains and bring them to the coroner in Nevada County.
Los Angeles Police Department RobberyHomicide detectives announced Wednesday in a news release that they will “continue to investigate and examine the evidence to determine the events that transpired which resulted in Shabani’s death.”
On March 1, detectives with the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division identified Christopher Spotz as a person of interest in the disappearance of Shabani since he was the last person seen with her at her apartment on Wilcox Avenue in Hollywood on Feb. 23.
A “want” was placed on Spotz’s 2015 Toyota Tacoma, which resulted in a San Bernardino Sheriff and California Highway Patrol pursuit on March 23, with Spotz driving the vehicle. The pursuit ended in Riverside County when Spotz shot and killed himself.
“Sometime during the week of Feb. 25, Spotz released a statement that he had been traveling north to Northern California with Miss Shabani,” LAPD Captain William Hayes said Tuesday.
“At some point in time, they had an argument and that the argument occurred somewhere in the area of Santa Clarita and that he let her out of the vehicle and had not seen her since,” he said.