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Adea Shabani, an aspiring actress from Macedonia, living in Los Angeles while studying at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theater, went missing in late February 2018.
Her body was found in a shallow grave over a month later in Penn Valley, California, and a subsequent examination revealed blunt force trauma to the head.
ID's Death by Fame is slated to revisit her 2018 murder, a case that remains unsolved to date. The all-new episode, titled For the Love of Drama, will air on the channel on Monday, February 13, 2023, at 9 pm ET.
The synopsis states:
"Adea Shabani crossed oceans to pursue her Hollywood dreams; still, passions run high in La La Land, so when she mysteriously goes missing, investigators scramble to keep her from becoming another of the city's lost angels."
Investigators suspected her boyfriend Chris Spotz, who was engaged to another woman while they were dating, but he fatally shot himself after a high-speed chase with the police days before her body was found. Phone records were able to place him near the area where the remains were found.
Adea Shabani murder case: The aspiring actress was last seen leaving her apartment with her boyfriend
Born and brought up in Macedonia, where she also completed high school, Adea Shabani relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and even made an appearance in an independent movie that was released in 2017.
Shabani was studying at the renowned Stella Adler Studio of Acting when she mysteriously disappeared in February 2018. Shortly after, her friends, who were suspicious of the circumstances, requested the Los Angeles Police Department for a welfare check at her apartment within days after which she was reported missing.
According to sources, the 25-year-old actress was last seen carrying luggage to an elevator on February 23 surveillance footage while leaving her apartment with her boyfriend Chris Spotz, who was engaged to a different woman at the time.
The couple were seen sporting baseball caps and as per her phone records, it was also the last time she texted one of her friends, although she was a frequent texter.
Spotz told police that they were taking a long drive to Northern California, but he let Shabani out of the car in Santa Clarita, about 25 miles from her house, after a bitter argument before driving away. He asserted that it was the last time he ever saw her.
According to The Denver Post, Captain William Hayes of the LAPD said:
"He [Spotz] said he let her out of the vehicle and had not seen her since then."
Adea Shabani's two-timing boyfriend Chris Spotz was the prime suspect in the case
When investigators proceeded to verify Chris Spotz's claim, they were drawn to the conclusion that he was lying. At that point, homicide detectives took up the investigation and traveled to Wheatland, California, to question the suspect's father about his son and Shabani's whereabouts. Investigators discovered that Spotz and his fiancee had traveled to his family home in Colorado on March 1.
Three weeks later, on March 22, Riverside County Sheriff's deputies spotted him driving his missing girlfriend's allegedly stolen Toyota Tacoma near Hesperia. He then led the police on a high-speed 60-mile chase from Hesperia to Corona before he pulled over, shot himself, and died at the scene.
Following tips, authorities found Adea Shabani, 25, buried in a shallow grave over 400 miles away from her apartment buried near a marsh in an isolated wildlife area of northern California. She was later identified by her tattoos. Eventually, a post-mortem examination revealed that she sustained blunt force trauma to her head.
Captain Hayes further said:
"Something happened, and I believe it to be somewhat untoward - that there was foul play involved."
Spotz's family allowed investigators to access his phone after his death. According to his phone records, he arrived at Shabani's apartment at around 12:48 pm. His digital footprints also revealed that he was present in the Northern California region where her corpse was later discovered.
No one has been prosecuted or found guilty in her death as of yet.
