Three months after she was found dead in a barrel in California, the body of model Heidi Lynn made her first public appearance in a memorial service held in Los Angeles Wednesday.
At the service for the model, who was known professionally as Heidi Faulkner, a small family of supporters, including the model’s parents, and the New York Police Department gathered to remember a woman who left a string of foul behavior behind as she struggled with prescription drug abuse.
“She died happy, she left happy,” said her uncle, Robert Faulkner, according to CNN affiliate KTLA.
‘She’s beautiful’
Heidi Faulkner was found dead in an industrial building in Venice Beach in July. Her body was discovered, strapped to a wheelchair, stuffed in a plastic barrel.
According to detectives, her body was dragged in to the garage and left there.
At the memorial service, her longtime friend, Kelsi Harmon, said she saw Faulkner at a July party when she was celebrating her 30th birthday. Faulkner was a great friend, Harmon said.
“She would never show a bad side, only a good side,” she said, according to KTLA. “She would never have friends over at her place and all the people were from New York, and she was never judgmental.”
Harmon brought to the service a piece of Faulkner’s hair. “She will never have that back,” she said.
At the service, Faulkner’s mother, Peggy Faulkner, called her daughter her “guardian angel,” according to KTLA. She and her son, Robert Faulkner, hugged.
“I’m so sorry for letting you down,” Robert Faulkner said, according to the affiliate. “You didn’t want to come here. You wanted to be doing something. She was beautiful to her last breath.”
A complicated life
Heidi Faulkner left her New York home in 2016 to make a new life for herself in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old had had only two tattoos and was still dealing with an addiction to prescription drugs.
Hours before she was found dead, she texted a friend that she was upset and sleeping, according to a GoFundMe page that was set up to cover funeral expenses.
A man who called police said he was cleaning out a one-story Los Angeles industrial building, near the beach, when he noticed the barrel, the affiliate reported.
“I’ll help you if you need me. I live down the block,” he said Faulkner texted to him in July.
Investigators say they believe Faulkner was killed somewhere else and then taken to the storage facility in downtown Los Angeles, where she was found with the barrel, according to KTLA.
A Los Angeles judge set her probable cause hearing for October 2, according to KTLA.
Her family has not been able to collect her medical records, the affiliate reported.