Funeral is held for Playboy model who was found strangled to death in Philadelphia

Former Playboy model Christina Carlin-Kraft was laid to rest at a funeral service in New Jersey on Wednesday a week after being found strangled to death at her Pennsylvania apartment as police continue to hunt her killer. 

Among the mourners was the 36-year-old’s father Stuart who greeted others outside the Ventor church after the service.

Police are yet to arrest anyone for the model’s murder but they have charged a man they believe burgled her apartment four days before she was found dead.  

They are still searching for the man who they say was filmed entering her home hours before she was found dead but never leaving on camera. 

Christina Carlin-Kraft was laid to rest on Wednesday at a church service in New Jersey 

The woman’s fiance, Alexander Ciccotelli, was emotional outside afterwards

Kraft’s father, Stuart, shook hands with the funeral director, afterwards

Christina Carlin-Kraft was found dead in her home on August 22. She had been strangled 

They issued surveillance footage of the man who is black and was wearing a white bandana and black jacket on the morning of her death.  

On Monday, pall bearers carried her out of the church in a white casket and placed it in a hearse adorned with flowers. 

Kraft was murdered four days after being burgled by Andre Melton. 

On August 17, the model went out and ‘blacked out’ after ordering an espresso martini at the Sofitel hotel. 

The next day, she felt ‘extremely sick’ after waking up the following day in the same clothing she had been wearing the night before but knew she ‘did not give anyone permission to enter her residence or permission to take her property’, according to Melton’s arrest warrant. 

The congregation emerged from Holy Trinity parish in Ventor, New Jersey somberly 

Flower arrangements included purple and white blooms in tribute to the model 

Mourners arrive for the funeral of Christina Carlin-Kraft on Wednesday in New Jersey 

Kraft (pictured left in 2016 when she was charged with assaulting a restaurant manager and right on vacation) was found dead in the bedroom of her ground-floor apartment in Ardmore, Pennsylvania on Wednesday at 9.15pm

This still image from surveillance video made in Philadelphia shows a person of interest in the murder of Christina Carlin-Kraft. He was filmed entering her apartment the morning she was found dead but was not seen leaving. Police are yet to find him and they say he may have exited by jumping over a balcony

Surveillance footage from August 18 of her looking unsteady on her feet and being held up by a man as she returned home seemed to corroborate the story.

The video, according to police, showed her falling but being picked up and placed into the elevator to head to her second-floor apartment. 

Police have not named any suspects in Kraft’s murder. Aside from her stint with Playboy, the model appeared in Maxim Magazine, Vanity Fair, Victoria’s Secret and Smashbox Cosmetics during her glamorous career

The man was then filmed leaving her home with a box of goods.

Melton was later charged with criminal trespass, burglary, and receiving stolen property when Kraft’s designer accessories and jewelry were recovered on his property. He has not been implicated in her death. 

Kraft’s father told DailyMail.com last week: ‘She was a happy-go-lucky lady, she loved life. 

‘She loved to be around people and she liked to enjoy herself with people and that’s what I think occurred. I think that somebody saw her happiness and took advantage of that.’

Prosecutors asked anyone who recognizes the man seen in the video to call Lower Merion police at 610-649-1000 or county detectives at 610-278-3368. Or submit tips through the STOPit app by using the code ‘MONTCOPA.’

The model just moved into this condo, the Cambridge Square Condominiums, a week ago

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk