BOCA RATON, FL -- "She seemed to have a very glamorous life at a time," Pamela Powers's roommate, Luis Ospina, explains as he shows us pictures of her with posing with celebrities.
But that glamorous life of a woman Ospina says was a former Playboy playmate, had a gruesome ending.
She was found dead in her ex-boyfriend's Boca Raton home Tuesday night.
Police say her body was badly decomposed.
"Right now the medical examiner is saying she's been dead for at least 36 hours but from all appearances, she's been there for a while," Officer Sandra Boonenberg explains.
Ospina last saw Powers 2 and a half weeks ago leaving their apartment for a Halloween party.
He didn't report her missing until Monday because he thought she was either on vacation or spending time with her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Sharpe.
Following up on that tip that Powers may be with her abusive ex, they came to Sharpe's home to question him about her disappearance.
When he wouldn't open the door, police got a search warrant.
Once inside, they found her body.
Police say they still don't know how Powers was killed except that it was very violent.
"All I can say is that the trauma was obvious and severe," Boonenberg says.
Violence was a steady part of the couple's relationship with Powers reportedly getting a restraining order against Sharpe after an incident in July.
Sharpe's next door neighbor, Jesse Banks, explains, "My step sister pulled him off of her in the summer. He was beating her up in the middle of the street."
Sharpe went to jail for the attack, and that's when Ospina says Powers moved in to his apartment.
"She took off her glasses, and she said look," Ospina says pointing to his eyes, "This is the reason why I'm moving, because I was beat up."
While he knew Sharpe was abusive he never imagined it would come to murder.
Neighbors never dreamed that while the house on NE 5th Avenue sat seemingly empty, Sharpe was allegedly inside with Powers's rotting body.
"That's the scary part, that's just crazy," says neighbor, Gordon Krieger.
A crazy end to the life of a former model, a neighbor and a friend.
Ospina says, "It's hard to swallow the news, it's hard to take it in."
Sharpe is charged with first degree murder and is being held in the Palm Beach County jail.
