The tragic and untimely deaths of Playmates

Jasmine Fiore - This Playmate's body was found on August 15, 2009. She was strangled and stuffed in a suitcase, which was then placed in a dumpster. Her fingers and teeth had been removed to hamper positive identification of her body. She was later identified by the serial numbers of her breast implants.

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Jasmine Fiore -

It's thought that she was in contact with her former lover at the time, a fact that upset her husband, Ryan Jenkins. He quickly became the prime suspect.

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Jasmine Fiore - Jenkins, a former reality TV contestant, was formally charged with the 28-year-old’s murder. Days later, he hung himself in a motel room.

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Jayne Mansfield - Mansfield was one of Hollywood's original blonde bombshells. She was honored as Playboy Playmate of the Month, and appeared naked in the magazine several times.

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Jayne Mansfield - She was known for her publicity stunts involving wardrobe malfunctions, but her death was even more shocking.

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Jayne Mansfield - On June 28, 1967, she, along with her boyfriend, driver, and children, crashed into a tractor-trailer and somehow went underneath it, removing the entire top of their car.

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Jayne Mansfield - The strangest part of this tale is the public's obsession with the idea that Mansfield had been decapitated. But while she suffered serious head trauma, this wasn't the case.

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Ashley Mattingly -

The former Playmate (she was Playboy's Miss March in 2011) took her own life on April 15, 2020, at her Austin, Texas home, where she left a suicide note. Her family has shared that she had been struggling with substance abuse, and that the "shelter-in-place" order in Texas due to the coronavirus pandemic did not help, as it led to increased loneliness. Mattingly was only 33 years old.

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Christina Carlin-Kraft -

The former Playboy model was found strangled to death at her Ardmore, Pennsylvania apartment back in August 2018. Police eventually arrested a man, Jonathan Harris, who was convicted of the charges.

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Stephanie Adams -

The November 1992 Playboy Playmate was a business owner, author, CEO, and the first Playmate to come out as a lesbian. Her career was going up, until it suddenly plunged with tragic consequences.

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Stephanie Adams -

On May 18, 2018, Adams killed herself by jumping out the window of a New York City hotel. Even worse, she took her 7-year-old son down with her. Reports suggest the murder-suicide was due to a strenuous custody battle with her ex.

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Yvette Vickers - A neighbor had noticed her overflowing mailbox, and went inside to find her body dry and shriveled up on the floor. Reports indicate that Vickers might’ve been there for almost a year, meaning she would have died in 2010.

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Dorothy Stratten - Dorothy Stratten was only 17 when her naked photos were submitted to Playboy by her 26-year-old boyfriend, Paul Snider. She and Snider later married, a union that would end in tragedy.

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Dorothy Stratten - After becoming a Playboy Bunny, Stratten began an affair with another man. Enraged, Snider shot and killed the 1980 Playmate of the Year, defiled her body, and then committed suicide. Her violent death made headline news.

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Star Stowe - Ellen Louise "Star" Stowe gained fame as Playmate of the Month, and as the girlfriend of rocker Gene Simmons (pictured). Later in her life, she descended into drugs, sex work, and alcohol.

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Star Stowe - On March 16, 1997, days before her 41st birthday, Stowe was found partially clothed, strangled, and dumped in bushes in what police investigators believed was part of a string of serial murders targeting sex workers.

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Marilyn Monroe -

The world’s biggest sex symbol in the '50s and '60s was the cover model for the very first Playboy issue, published in December 1953.

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Marilyn Monroe -

Despite her looks, career, and relationships, or perhaps because of them, Monroe grew dependent on alcohol and prescription medications.

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Marilyn Monroe - She was found naked, lying face-down on her bed, reaching for the phone. Her death remains a mystery, wrapped in several conspiracy theories, and national despair.

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Marilyn Monroe -

On August 5, 1962, the film star was found dead in her bedroom at her California home. Investigators were torn over whether it was an overdose or murder.

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Anna Nicole Smith - The Playboy Playmate, reality TV star, and media darling was found unresponsive in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on February 8, 2007.

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Anna Nicole Smith -

The reported cause of death was cited as an overdose on at least nine prescription drugs. She passed away six months after her own son died from drug-related causes.

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Anna Nicole Smith -

Though the cause of death is well-known, the reasons why she consumed a lethal amount of so many different drugs at once remains a mystery.

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Jasmine Fiore -

It's thought that she was in contact with her former lover at the time, a fact that upset her husband, Ryan Jenkins. He quickly became the prime suspect.

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Jasmine Fiore - Jenkins, a former reality TV contestant, was formally charged with the 28-year-old’s murder. Days later, he hung himself in a motel room.

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Jayne Mansfield - Mansfield was one of Hollywood's original blonde bombshells. She was honored as Playboy Playmate of the Month, and appeared naked in the magazine several times.

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Jayne Mansfield - She was known for her publicity stunts involving wardrobe malfunctions, but her death was even more shocking.

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Jayne Mansfield - On June 28, 1967, she, along with her boyfriend, driver, and children, crashed into a tractor-trailer and somehow went underneath it, removing the entire top of their car.

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Jayne Mansfield - The strangest part of this tale is the public's obsession with the idea that Mansfield had been decapitated. But while she suffered serious head trauma, this wasn't the case.

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Ashley Mattingly -

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Christina Carlin-Kraft -

The former Playboy model was found strangled to death at her Ardmore, Pennsylvania apartment back in August 2018. Police eventually arrested a man, Jonathan Harris, who was convicted of the charges.

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Stephanie Adams -

The November 1992 Playboy Playmate was a business owner, author, CEO, and the first Playmate to come out as a lesbian. Her career was going up, until it suddenly plunged with tragic consequences.

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Stephanie Adams -

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Marilyn Monroe -

The world’s biggest sex symbol in the '50s and '60s was the cover model for the very first Playboy issue, published in December 1953.

Getty Images

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Marilyn Monroe -

Despite her looks, career, and relationships, or perhaps because of them, Monroe grew dependent on alcohol and prescription medications.

Getty Images

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Marilyn Monroe - She was found naked, lying face-down on her bed, reaching for the phone. Her death remains a mystery, wrapped in several conspiracy theories, and national despair.

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Marilyn Monroe -

On August 5, 1962, the film star was found dead in her bedroom at her California home. Investigators were torn over whether it was an overdose or murder.

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The tragic and untimely deaths of Playmates

Anna Nicole Smith and Jayne Mansfield are just two famous examples

20/12/24 | StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Tragedy

Mystery shrouds the gruesome ends that far too many Playboy Playmates seem to have met. To learn more about the numerous ill-fated Playmates, check out this gallery and read about the tragic, bizarre, and often unexplained deaths of the celebrity models who were ultimately destined for disaster.