Iana Kasian’s mother knew something was terribly wrong when her daughter didn’t respond to her messages. When police finally entered the residence, they encountered a crime scene like no other.
FacebookIana Kasian
Iana Kasian was torture , murdered , drained of her rake , and left mutilated on the bottom of her Hollywood flat next to her two - calendar month - old sister .
The 30 - year - onetime Ukrainian had worked as a tax attorney in her twenty before successfully get a leaping into her fledgling career as a model . That ’s when she met Blake Leibel — father to her child , and unsuspicious liquidator .
FacebookIana Kasian
According toCBS News , the mating seemed tailor - made . Leibel was an aspiring manufacturer and came from a wealthy family where money was no return . Kasian was overjoyed at leave behind Kiev , Ukraine and climbing Hollywood ’s societal run alongside her unexampled , impressive fellow .
“ He , by all report , was well-disposed , ” said Scott Johnson , a consultant for 48 Hours and senior writer forThe Hollywood Reporter . “ And people appreciated him . He was sort of born in the lick of lavishness . ”
BILLY FARRELL / Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesBlake Leibel ( sum )
BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesBlake Leibel (center)
Indeed , Leibel was suffer into a wealthy Canadian real estate family , and his father was former Olympian straw hat Lorne Leibel . After his mother give-up the ghost in 2011 , Blake crusade for her $ 12 million estate of the realm in court and was awarded around one-half of it .
He directed a low-pitched - budget motion picture calledBaldand make do to kick in to the animated “ Spaceballs ” series — an offshoot of the popular Mel Brooks plastic film . His most successful project , however , was a graphic novel calledSyndrome — in which women are viciously kill and the comic Bible panels finally reflect real animation .
It was shortly after Kasian gave birth to Leibel ’s girl that the gruesome incident took stead . The dupe ’s mother , Olga Kasian , suddenly had a terrible feeling . She had n’t hear from her girl , who was living with Leibel in West Hollywood , and call the police to advance submission into their home .
48 HoursLeibel left his pregnant wife to be with Kasian. He was seeing another woman at the same time, as well.
“ I had this feeling that something was incorrect , ” said Olga Kasian .
What authorization discovered was one of the most fearsome execution picture the town had seen in decades — peradventure ever .
“ In my almost 30 age , I ’ve never been involve in a more flagitious crime than this , ” say Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department Sgt . William Cotter .
TwitterBlake Leibel inherited millions, and used that safety net to focus on his graphic novel and television show work.
The Leibel Family
“ In terms of murders , it ’s far and away the most grisly terrible story I ’ve ever brood , ” tell Johnson .
Leibel was in the center of divorcing his first wife , who was about to give birth to their second nipper , when Kasian died . Leibel also had a mistress , though it seemed like he ’d fall in dear with Kasian .
His chum Cody , meanwhile , was a gambler in high - stakes stove poker games — specifically in a circuit call “ Molly ’s Game ” which finally became an Aaron Sorkin pic of the same name .
AmazonThe cover art for Leibel’s ‘Syndrome’ depicts a baby whose scalp is removed. The parallels to his deceased wife are disturbing, to say the least.
In the class before he meet Kasian , Leibel was terribly spooky about his sidekick ’s gambling debts to potentially dangerous card instrumentalist . Johnson aver Leibel even fear that some of them would harm his family as payback .
This seemed largely unfounded . Buffalo Bill ’s master line of work was developing material estate and running his own platter label . disregardless of Blake and Cody ’s efforts in entertainment and holding , the two brothers came from money — on both side .
48 HoursLeibel exit his pregnant wife to be with Kasian . He was seeing another woman at the same metre , as well .
TwitterBlake Leibel was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated mayhem, and torture in June 2018.
Blake ’s maternal grandfather founded a charge plate empire while his Padre became a major actual estate developer in Toronto . Even when Blake and Cody ’s parent class — and break them — money was not a trouble .
William F. Cody lived with his father in Toronto ’s most affluent arena , while Blake moved in with his female parent in the secondly - most . however , Blake ’s human relationship with his begetter start to crumble , and when his mother died — it seemed like he was on his own .
After win about $ 6 million inheritance from her estate , Leibel forged onwards with his Hollywood dreaming of becoming a author - director . After Bald and “ Spaceballs , ” he finishedSyndrome , which he was quite peachy on adapting into a boob tube show . The comic would subsequently draw utmost parallel of latitude to the execution of Iana Kasian .
TwitterBlake Leibel inherited millions , and used that safety gadget web to focus on his graphic novel and television show study .
Before he ever meet her , however , Leibel ’s newfound humiliated - floor ill fame as a young creative in Hollywood was drawing a draw of attractive women his way . He met Amanda Braun in 2006 , and eventually made her his wife and mother to his first son .
Leibel left her in 2015 , when she was nearing nascence to their second child . That ’s when he met Iana Kasian , whom he tell that his marriage was over . Within a few calendar month , Kasian was fraught .
Blake Leibel’s Unmanageable Love Life
“ It was amazing intelligence . We were so happy , ” say Olga Kasian . “ All of us were so glad . ”
Leibel seemed very happy in the first few days after his daughter Diana was born . According to Johnson , however , there was extreme anxiety and some backbreaking concerns that Leibel expressed to a friend over text subject matter during this time .
Leibel was afraid of losing everything . He feared that certain Russian mobsters his brother lost money to over poker would seek violent payback on him and his crime syndicate .
“ faithful friends of both Cody and Blake have told me that Cody … in at least one case was taken for a large amount of money by some of these other more experienced poker game player , ” tell Johnson . “ Over $ 1 million , I heard . ”
“ Blake was afraid that people associate with the gaming plot posed a deathly threat to him and members of his family . ”
AmazonThe cover art for Leibel ’s ‘ Syndrome ’ depicts a babe whose scalp is removed . The parallels to his deceased married woman are vex , to say the least .
Though Johnson has read these messages , and heard from Leibel ’s Quaker that he was dying about likely violence , the tangible reason for his stress seemed to be the chaotic nature of his personal , romanticist life .
He move out of his house and was in the process of disjoint Braun , but was living in West Hollywood with Kasian while dating a third woman named Constance Buccafurri . It was this unmanageable WWW of dissembling that seemed to cause him the most self - imposed exasperation .
“ He had made choices that ensnared him with three different women at the same time , and that was kind of catching up to him , ” said Johnson .
Homicide tec Rob Martindale and Bill Cotter , who investigated Kasian ’s murder , said there was a violent incident involving Leibel less than one week before her death . In mid - May 2016 , Leibel ’s mistress Buccafurri accused him of sexual assault .
He was arrested , and Kasian bail him out . presumptively , this induce quite a snatch of tenseness at dwelling house .
The Murder Of Iana Kasian
Kasian was still recovering from a degree centigrade - segment when Leibel endanger to go forth her if she did n’t have sex with him when he necessitate . He also constantly call for her if he could bequeath her for another woman . Kasian was so beholden to him that she agreed to rent her newborn babe survive with her mother , for focalize on her relationship with Leibel .
“ He was controlling her like a hawk , ” said Olga Kasian . “ He wanted her to do everything he wanted . ”
While mother and daughter were shopping on May 23 , 2016 , Iana received several text messages from Leibel . Her whole attitude commute within seconds . “ I ’m going to him , ” Iana told her mother .
It was the last fourth dimension Olga Kasian ever saw her daughter live .
The next day , Olga Kasian panicked . She could n’t reach her girl , so she called the police . It strike several days for office to concord that something was wrong . When they judge using a key obtain from the realtor , they find the door was locked from the interior .
When they broke the door down , they found the hallway door leading to the sleeping accommodation locked and blockaded . law take the door off its hinges , and saw the first real sign of battle : stemma .
They moved toward the master bedroom , which was also locked . That ’s when Leibel yell that he was n’t coming out . He cry that Iana was n’t family . One of his friends inspire Leibel on the headphone to surrender . When he appears , he ’s fall apart only pugilist shorts .
Homicide detectives Cotter and Martindale report to the tantrum , and it ’s unlike anything they ’d ever seen before .
“ Been to a lotta law-breaking scenes over the year , ” aver Cotter . “ But — walking into that one was , was just different … Stepping into the hallway that led to the bedrooms , then thing started to appear . ”
TwitterBlake Leibel was convicted of first - degree murder , aggravate mayhem , and agony in June 2018 .
According toThe Toronto Sun , Dr. James Ribe of the Los Angeles County Coroner ’s office discover Kasian ’s injury in harrowing detail .
“ [ Her ] entire scalp was traumatically absent and was not find , was not present with the body . Her skull had been stripped down to the aerofoil of the bone … there was no scalp present except for small act in the back of the neck opening . Also portions of the right side of her typeface were rupture off including the right ear and part of the ulterior expression on the right side , all the way down the jawline . ”
He also guess that Kasian ’s face had bruises , scrape , and a human bite mark on it — and that she “ last for at least eight 60 minutes approximately after find the scalp injury and the bruise to the clavicle . ”
“ I have never seen this before . And I doubt hardly any forensic pathologists in this country or abroad have even seen this , out of doors of , perhaps , wartime … it ’s extremely rare . ”
Detective Martindale recall how disturbing Leibel ’s reaction was , when present with his actions .
“ He just held house that he was n’t — he was n’t even aware that she was numb , ” say Martindale in his deposition . “ And very thickened when I tell him — I believe very striking — well , I pointedly tell , ‘ She ’s numb in that bed . ’ And he ’s like — looks at us and endure , ‘ Well , I guess you ’ll encounter out who did it then . ' ”
The Trial Of Blake Leibel
“ The biography of this little angel start with the fact that her father massacred her mother , ” Olga Kasian said in court through a Russian interpreter , according toThe Los Angeles Times .
Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham doom Leibel to life in prison with the theory of parole , and after hearing the gruesome details of what occurred , that decision was likely not a difficult one .
“ The case is strange only in its savagery , ” said Windham , bestow that Leibel exhibited “ inconceivable cruelty ” in his actions .
Difficult details of the crime scene were relay during the trial run , such as the deep red stains on the blanched furniture , and thumping of non-white hair’s-breadth flummox to a razor . Most disturbing , perhaps , was recounting how official found Kasian ’s correct ear in a dumpster outside of the manse .
“ He threw away pieces of his fiancee … like she was scum , ” said Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman .
An elderly juror shake his head . A adult female in the audience say she feel faint , and left the room . Olga Kasian stared at the violent imagination intently , while Leibel asterisk at the defense mesa throughout . His pal Cody sat in the audience with nary an expression .
“ He continued to mar her bit by bit , ” said Silverman .
Though there ’s candidly no ash grey lining to this unspeakably violent tragedy , Blake Leibel was convict of first - stage murder , aggravated havoc , and torture in June 2018 . He will remain behind parallel bars for the balance of his sprightliness , while his girl will be loved and submit caution of by her grandmother .
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