NEVADA COUNTY, Calif. March 27, 2018 – LAPD and Nevada County Sheriff’s personnel are on site at the Spenceville Nature Preserve with forensic anthropologists to recover the remains of a female body believed to be missing actress Adea Shabani.
Lieutenant Robert Bringolf, with the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office was on scene this morning while forensic anthropologists from Chico State were working to exhume the remains.
Bringolf told YubaNet the remains are consistent with those of a female and the identity of the recovered body will be released once the coroner’s investigation is complete, which could take a few days.
He added, “We are working in cooperation with LAPD. Through their investigation, LAPD detectives were led to the bank of Dry Creek, which runs through the Spenceville Wildlife Area.” He confirmed the detectives “involved in the recovery are working the missing person case of Adea Shabani.”
The shallow grave near the creek bed is at the end of a very rough dirt road leading through the wildlife preserve. Nevada County Sheriff’s Office is handling the coroner case while the LAPD detectives continue to work what is now believed to be a homicide investigation.
Shortly before noon, the coroner’s van was en route to transport the remains to the lab where the formal identification will be made.
Shabani was last seen on Hollywood’s Wilcox Avenue on February 23, 2018. Her reported boyfriend Christopher Spotz, a 33-year old actor, committed suicide after leading police on a car chase from Hesperia to Corona in a reportedly stolen vehicle last Thursday, March 22nd.
Shabani, originally from Macedonia, had moved to Los Angeles to study acting and landed a role in “All or Nothing” in 2017. Her family had hired a private investigator to help find their missing daughter.