Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide detectives are investigating the murder of a 30-year-old woman in her apartment in the 8500 block of Holloway Drive in West Hollywood.
According to a press release from the Sheriff’s Department, the woman, Iana Kasian, suffered a blunt force trauma to her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies arrested Blake Liebel, the woman’s boyfriend, who lived with her in the apartment and was the father of their three-week-old child.
Sources have told WEHOville that the woman, who is of Russian origin, had put her child in the care of her mother. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the Kasian’s apartment around noon today when her mother showed up there, expressing concern that she hadn’t been able to reach her daughter for four days. Deputies forced their way in and arrested Liebel after a search of the apartment found Kasian lying dead in her bedroom.
Leibel was arrested six days before this homicide on a felony charge of rape. The victim has not been identified. He posted $100,000 bail and was released, according to L.A. County jail records. He was scheduled to go to court on that arrest in downtown Superior Court on June 17, the jail records show.
Leibel, 35, is a native of Toronto. His IMDb profile identifies him as creator of the graphic novel “Syndrome.” Leibel also has worked as a screenwriter and as a creative consultant on Spaceballs, the animated TV series, several of whose episodes he directed.
