@AlexisSharkey/Instagram
- Alexis Sharkey, an influencer who was found dead in Houston in November, reportedly died by homicide.
- Sharkey, who was 26 at the time, was strangled to death, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said.
- Her mother and friend previously told Insider they believed she was murdered.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Houston influencer Alexis Sharkey, whose body was found on the side of the road on November 28, was killed in a homicide, the medical examiner said in a report.
A representative for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences confirmed to Insider on Friday that Sharkey died of strangulation. NBC News first reported the cause of death.
The Houston Police Department could not be reached for comment at press time, but an officer previously told Insider that they were awaiting the autopsy results before proceeding in the investigation. No arrests have been made, NBC News reported.
Sharkey, whose legal name was Alexis Robinault, was 26 years old when sanitation workers discovered her naked body on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sharkey’s family and friends said they learned she was missing the day before.
Before her death, Sharkey had developed a following of roughly 20,000 people on Instagram, where she promoted Monat, a haircare brand that uses multilevel marketing. She had been married for just under a year to Tom Sharkey, a man she met in Texas after moving from her home in Pennsylvania, her mother, Stacey Robinault, told Insider.
The revelation of Sharkey's cause of death comes after nearly two months of Sharkey's loved ones questioning what happened to her.
Sharkey's mother told Insider in a December interview that she believed her daughter was murdered. "I believe solely that she was murdered, because of the manner in which her body was left," Robinault said. "It just drives deep into the soul that something very malicious happened here, and I want to get to the bottom of it."
Tanya Ricardo, who became friends with Sharkey after they met through the Bumble dating app's friend feature, also told Insider she believed Sharkey was murdered. Ricardo said she celebrated Thanksgiving at her home with Sharkey the night before she went missing. "I have faith, and I'm hoping that whoever did this suffers the consequences," Ricardo said in a phone interview.
Ricardo, who spoke to Insider on Christmas Eve, said she and the rest of her group of friends mourning Sharkey's death just wanted "someone to be arrested so that we could go on and move on with our lives."