The search for model and actress Adea Shabani has intensified after a man believed to be her boyfriend shot and killed himself in a stand-off with police on Thursday night.
The Riverside County Coroner’s office identified the man as 33-year-old actor Christopher Spotz, according to CBS Los Angeles. Police pursued him all the way from Hesperia to Corona with a passenger who has yet to be named. They were reportedly driving a stolen Toyota Tacoma, which authorities believed had “possibly been used in a homicide which had occurred in Los Angeles County,” California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Dan Olivas told the outlet.
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Spotz took his own life when police caught up with him, and he died on the scene. No further details were released about the case. However, sources told NBC-4 Los Angeles that Spotz was in a relationship with Shabani. They also claimed that Spotz had “just returned to Southern California from Colorado,” where he was with another woman who he was engaged to.
The police had also gotten reports from Shabani’s friends, some of whom had received anonymous phone calls shortly after Shabani disappeared. NBC-4 reported that the caller had seen Spotz placing Shabani into the bed of a truck. The actress reportedly looked “drugged and in danger,” according to the caller.
On Saturday, a public information officer for the Los Angeles Police Department told PEOPLE that Shabani’s case is still being investigated as a missing person’s case, rather than a murder. Her family has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to her discovery.
Shabani, 25, was last seen on Feb. 23 in Los Angeles, according to the LAPD. Her friends told KABC that they first became worried when Shabani stopped responding to their texts. Her mother flew from Macedonia to L.A. to help with the search, and has reportedly hired a private investigator.
“We have no evidence that she is a runaway. She’s not [voluntarily] missing. We don’t have any evidence that she wanted to harm herself,” private investigator Jayden Brant told KABC.
Shabani is a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes. She is approximately five feet, five inches tile, and weighs about 130 pounds.
LAPD is asking anyone with information to call the department’s Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800.
