A former fashion model was found shot and killed off Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania last weekend, and a man has been arrested in her murder, authorities said.
The body of 47-year-old Rebecca Landrith of Alexandria, Virginia, was found early Sunday by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation employee on the side of a driveway of I-80, the Philly Voice reported.
The coroner reported that Landrith had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and throat, and 18 bullets were removed from her body.
An iStudio page for Landrith says she previously worked as a model in New York City and was a finalist for the “Miss Manhattan” contest in 2014, as well as the “America’s It Girl Miss Lady Liberty” pageant.
“Ms. Landrith has appeared in numerous product ads, video commercials, magazines, spokes-model videos for companies and their websites, and multiple haute couture runway shows, including Fashion Week,” says her biography.
Police found a note in Landrith’s pocket that led to the arrest of 28-year-old Tracy Rollins on Wednesday.
Rollins, a Dallas truck driver, was taken into custody in Milldale, Connecticut, for murder and torture abuse, PennLive reported.
The note included Rollins’s name, a phone number and an email address, investigators said. Authorities also said Landrith recently toured Indiana and Wisconsin.
Rollins told investigators that he did not know Landrith and that he had traveled with a woman named “Leslie” whom he had met at a truck stop in Connecticut, according to an affidavit obtained by PennLive.
He said he and Leslie traveled to Maine; Brooklyn, New York; Connecticut; and Wisconsin, the affidavit said.
Police discovered that the model had made hotel reservations under the name Leslie Myers in December, the outlet reported.
Landrith’s family mourned her death, but were happy that an arrest had finally been made.
“We are relieved,” brother George Landrith told PennLive. “It doesn’t relieve the sense of loss.”
“Her family loved her dearly,” he added. None of this brings her back. It is important that she gets justice. “