A graphic novelist has been charged with murder, after his 30-year-old girlfriend’s body was found bloodless and mutilated in their West Hollywood apartment.

Blake Leibel, a 35-year-old Canadian heir, was charged with torture and murder, although he pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture.

His girlfriend, Iana Kasian, had been reported missing by her mother. Her body was then found in the couple’s apartment, after police forced their way through the door that Blake had barricaded.

WY Daily News elaborated on the pair’s background:

Leibel, who is the son of prominent Toronto developer Lorne Leibel, is accused of murdering Kasian, on or between May 23 and May 26, at their apartment.

His father founded GTA-based development company Canada Homes Inc. Lorne Leibel also sailed for Team Canada in the 1976 Olympics and has since raced both boats and vintage cars, according to the Toronto Star.

Kasian, a Kyiv, Ukraine-born woman, Kasian appeared to have been badly beaten over the past three days, and all the blood had drained from her by the time she was found, authorities said.

Kasian had moved to the US two years ago and gave birth to a baby girl on May 3, her first child.

Through Leibel, the baby is an heiress of two prominent and wealthy Toronto families.

Leibel’s father, Lorne, made a fortune in the home building boom of the 1980s and 90s as the president of Canada Homes, once described as the nation’s largest home builder.

And his mother, Eleanor Leibel, was the daughter of Paul and Leona Chitel. The Chitel family founded Alros Products Ltd, a plastics company based in Toronto that does business as Polytarp.

If found guilty, Leibel could face the death penalty.

If you have a look the graphic novels he has written, you can see various scenes of twisted crimes throughout. As reported by the Toronto Sun:

In his book Syndrome the protagonist talks of the “sexual gratification” he derived from killing and tells his shrink that he “should try it.”

Here’s the cover, a page from the graphic novel – which you can see the rest of HERE – and the synopsis:

When a rogue neuropathologist makes a startling breakthrough—literally isolating the root of all evil in the recesses of the human brain—he’ll stop at nothing to advance his theory. With the help of a naïve Hollywood actress, a tormented motion picture production designer and a condemned serial killer, Dr. Wolfe Chitel launches a bold experiment in the Nevada desert, the outcome of which could transform humanity forever. “The Truman Show” meets “Se7en” in SYNDROME, an inventive, original graphic novel hardcover that serves as one of the first titles to be featured under Archaia’s new Black Label line. Published in association with Fantasy Prone.

[source: wydailynews&graphicpolicy]