Alexis Sharkey was 'strangled': Forensic sciences rule social media influencer's mystery death as a homicide
There has been a development in the death of Alexis Sharkey, the social media influencer whose naked body was found along a Texas roadway after she went missing over the day of Thanksgiving. Officials announced on Tuesday that Sharkey was "strangled to death". The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled her death as a homicide. The cause of death was a mystery after she went missing on November 27. Initially, her mother had told the media she left the house following a fight with her husband, Tom Sharkey.
Stacey Robinault also added her daughter had not taken the car. The following morning, municipal workers found her body naked and it had no visible wounds. Her body was found on the side of the I-10 service road and the New York Post said the roadway was just three miles away from the apartment she shared with Tom. The influencer's naked body was "delicately placed" in a fetal position on the road like a "mannequin".
Reports say that a sanitation worker who discovered the body of Alexis reportedly told his supervisor that it appeared as if she was carefully placed there and believed it was a 'mannequin'. John Richardson, a supervisor for Houston’s Solid Waste Department, told ABC13 that a garbage collector called him after finding Sharkey’s body last month. "(The employee) called me and said, 'Man, I think I see a body but I'm for not sure, or a mannequin or something,'" said Richardson. "He really didn't know because he didn't stop."
The 26-year-old Houston resident’s friends spoke of her relationship with Tom and said Alexis was reportedly planning for a divorce and had been afraid of him. As per the Daily Beast, a friend recollected: "Throughout the trip, he was sending really awful, nasty messages to her. But one night when she and I were talking alone she said, ‘He strangles me and chokes me out and I blackout and wake up on the bathroom floor every single time."
Tom had later claimed the marriage didn't have any troubles. Robinault, while speaking to local news station KRIV, said that Tom cut off communication and eventually, the medical examiner made her the next of the kin. "As her husband, he would have primary custody of what determined what happened with her, and he had said all along that he was willing to let her come home. I didn’t think I was gonna get her, and I had actually given up hope when all of the sudden the forensics lab called me," Robinault said.
"It just was very strange – I’d almost call it ‘fight’ to get her," Robinault added. Alexis' mother was holding a "very private" viewing in Houston last Friday for "the very closest of family" as well as some of her daughter's friends," she added. Tom had originally been listed as the next of kin in the official records, however, this was later changed with her parents replacing the husband. The New York Post report said the autopsy report would be available after the law enforcement concludes its case.
Houston Police Department has said no arrests have been made or charges filed. The case is still under investigation.