Man
Found Dead in Montana Avenue Apartment, Victim of 2nd Santa
Monica Homicide |
By Lookout Staff
March 20 -- In what is the second homicide victim discovered
in Santa Monica in four days, a man was found dead in his Montana
Avenue condo Wednesday night after his mother had failed to contact
him for several days, police said.
The victim has been identified as Alexander Merman, according to
police. Merman is 35 years old and lived alone.
The victim apparently died as a result of blunt force trauma, said
Lt. Alex Padilla, the Police Department spokesman. Police do not
know how long the victim had been dead.
Police do not believe the case is related to the homicide of Juliana
Redding, a 21-year-old aspiring model found dead in her Santa Monica
apartment on the 1500 block of Centinela Avenue Sunday afternoon.
The Los Angeles County Coroners Office will conduct an autopsy
to determine the cause of death.
Merman’s body was found after police responded to the apartment
complex he lived in on the 500 block of the upscale commercial strip
at 8 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a telephone call from the apartment
complex manager, who had gone into the victim’s apartment
to check on his well being.
“The building manager had been asked by the victim’s
mother to check on his status, as the mother had not been able to
get in contact with her son for several days,” Padilla said.
According to his web site "Sasha's
Illusions," Alexander "Sasha" Merman was born
in Moscow, Russia on October 24, 1972. Merman grew up in a communist
regime until 1985, when he immigrated to Los Angeles with his mother,
according to the site.
After completing junior high and high schools in Los Angeles, Merman
joined the U.S.Navy in 1992 and later began working on a portfolio
"with a goal of pursuing an education in visual arts,"
according to the web site.
"Sasha Merman’s unorthodox artistic style combines Dali’s
bizarre surrealism, M.C. Escher’s three-dimensional illusions
and Giger’s eery erotic imagery with the modern influences
of urban L.A. culture," according to the web site.
"The divulgement of his artistic ideas is aided by the use
of unconventional surfaces to create an inimitable expression of
the artist’s stream of consciousness."
The discovery of Merman's body comes four days after Redding was
also found dead in her Santa Monica apartment after her mother tried
unsuccessfully to contact her and called police.
Redding was the apparent victim of assault, police said.
The results of Redding’s autopsy have been placed on security
hold by police, and the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with additional information on either case should call the
Santa Monica Police Department at 310.458-8427 (24 hours) or call
Detectives at 310.458.8451 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to
5 p.m.
Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call the WeTip hotline at
1-800-78-CRIME (27463).
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