Second arrest in "America's Next Top Model" murder
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A second person is charged with murder in connection to the deaths of three people, including a former contestant on "America's Next Top Model," reports CBS affiliate WBTV.
David Ezequel Lopez, 20, was reportedly arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the February deaths of Jonathan Alvarado, Jusmar Isiah Gonzaga-Garcia, and Mirjana Puhar, who competed on the "Top Model" television show in 2014.
Emmanuel Jesus Rangel, 19, had previously been arrested on the same charges on February 25. He is also charged in connection to a separate homicide that took place on February 22.
On Feb. 24, 23-year-old Alvarado, 22-year-old Gonzaga-Garcia and 19-year-old Puhar were found dead inside a home on Norris Avenue in Charlotte, N.C., by officers responding to a tip from a confidential informant, according to WBTV.
Documents released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) reportedly indicate that there was drug activity at the home.
Police reportedly found four spent shell casings that came from a .380 caliber gun, a box of nine millimeter ammunition, and several bullet projectiles inside the home. CMPD also said they recovered a marijuana-like substance baggie as well as a brownish-red colored plastic substance. They also made note of a metal teaspoon.
In a profile that ran in the Charlotte Observer, Puhar said she came to the United States from Serbia as a child, and appeared in the 21st cycle of "America's Next Top Model" last year. She told the newspaper that she dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.
"I was a wild child," she said. "I went out, had fun, partied, whatever - I didn't really have the best influences around me.