A man believed to be the boyfriend of Adea Shabani shot and killed himself Thursday night in a California stand-off with police, multiple outlets report — only intensifying the search for the model and actress who disappeared in Los Angeles last month.
According to Fox-11 Los Angeles, police pursed the man in a chase from Hesperia to Corona with an unnamed passenger before he used a handgun to put a bullet in his head, dying on the scene.
He has been identified by the Riverside County Coroner’s office as actor Christopher Spotz, 33, of North Hollywood, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Spotz was driving a stolen Toyota Tacoma authorities believed had been “possibly been used in a homicide which had occurred in Los Angeles County,” California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Dan Olivas told CBS Los Angeles in a statement. No further details about the case were provided.
Olivas did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
NBC-4 Los Angeles, citing law enforcement sources, reported Spotz was in a relationship with Shabani. They also reported he had “just returned to Southern California from Colorado” where he was with another woman: his fiancée.
Friends of Shabani had apparently gone to the Los Angeles Police Department saying they had received an anonymous phone call days after Shabani’s disappearance, NBC-4 Los Angeles reported. The caller had allegedly seen Shabani placed in the bed of a truck by Spotz. She appeared to be “drugged and in danger,” the caller claimed.
A pubic information officer for the Los Angeles Police Department told PEOPLE on Saturday the search for Shabani is still ongoing and and that her disappearance is still being investigated as a missing person’s case, not a murder.
Her friends told local TV station KABC that they became worried for Shabani when she stopped responding to their text messages.
Shabani, who is originally from Macedonia, moved to L.A. to study acting. She had been in the area for less than two years, according to KABC.
After Shabani’s disappearance, her mother flew from Macedonia to help with the search, putting up fliers in the area, KABC reports. Her family has also 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 the station.
Shabani is described as a white female with blonde hair, blue eyes, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing approximately 130 lbs., according to police.
She was last seen near the 1700 block of Wilcox Avenue in L.A.
“Treat it as if it were your own family member, some of your own friends, because believe me if you met this girl, if you knew this girl, she would be a great friend to everybody that knows her,” friend Lisjen Jovanovski told KABC.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the L.A. Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (during off-hours) or call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
