After the deaths of two models in their downtown Los Angeles apartments last week, family members are concerned there could be a serial killer at work.

Maleesa Mooney, the 31-year-old sister of Guyanese pop singer Jourdin Pauline, was found dead in her apartment last Tuesday after her family asked police for a welfare check, as CrimeOnline previously reported.

“When a week went by, we just knew something was off,” Bailey Babb, Maleesa Mooney’s cousin, told KTLA. “Her messages weren’t delivering and we knew something was up because we all have a special relationship with Maleesa.”

While police have released no details about Mooney’s death, they did say they were investigating it as.a homicide.

Three days after announcing Mooney’s death, police said that family members found the body of Nichole “Nikki” Coats, a 32-year-old model, on September 10. Family said she, too, had stopped responding to attempts to contact her.

“I couldn’t recognize her,” said May Stevens, Coats’s aunt and one of the family members who made the gruesome discovery. “I believe it was murder, I really do.”

Police have only called Coats’s death “suspicious” so far.

Family members said Coates told them she was going out on a date on September 8, and they never heard from her again.

The two women lived less than three miles apart. Police have not said whether they have information on a suspect, but the families are concerned.

“I feel that there’s a predator loose,” Stevens said.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-527-3247.

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[Featured image: Maleesa Mooney and Nikki Coates/handouts]