Buena Park Police in southern California have positively identified a woman whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and tossed in a dumpster as that of swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore.
The 28-year-old was last seen Friday night about 8:30pm at her home in the 800 block of Edinburgh Avenue, near Melrose Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and her mother, Lisa Lepore. She did not have any contact with her family since then, police said.
Police belive Fiore was strangled. She apparently died just hours before someone discovered her body was found in a dumpster behind a Buena Park apartment complex, according to authorities.
Lepore told City News Service that she visited last week with her daughter, who was not planning on going anywhere.
"It's just not like her to disappear," Lepore said in a telephone interview from Santa Cruz.
Fiore was described as white, 5 feet 7, about 120 pounds, with blue eyes, according to police. Lepore said her daughter, previously a blonde, recently died her brown hair black.
Fiore was from the Las Vegas area and recently moved to Los Angeles, police said.
Lepore said her daughter is well known in some circles because she has appeared as a model in advertising for radio personality Howard Stern and Las Vegas hotels.
Lepore also said her daughter has worked for Playboy as a representative and coordinator for "Girls of Golf."
"She's not a pinup girl, but she has worked for them," Lepore said.
Fiore was in Los Angeles to start a personal training business, Lepore said, adding that her daughter recently changed her last name to Kinkaid.
