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Crime News

Who Was Desiree Gibbon, The New York Model Found With Her Throat Slit In Jamaica?

She once made an appearance on Nickelodeon's Blues Clues and her boyfriend said "her smile could just melt somebody."

By Gina Tron

Desiree Gibbon was found dead on the side of a road in rural Jamaica Sunday morning. According to the New York Daily News, her body was spotted in some bushes caked in blood. She was beaten and her throat had been slit in a brutal fashion. Here’s what we know about her, so far:

1. She was a 26-year-old model from New York City.

She previously competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant. According to Loop Jamaica, Gibbon was granted a three-month-long stay in the country so that she could look for work.

2. She’s done some acting.

As a child, she appeared in at least one episode of Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues.

3. She loved traveling.

Gibbon’s mother Andrea Cali-Gibbon expressed her daughter's desire to travel to the Daily News. She said that Gibbon “wanted to travel to countries and try things and experience cultures.”

4. She wanted to go to film school in Europe.

Cali-Gibbon said her daughter had aspirations of going to film school in Europe. Her plan was to bartend in Jamaica to save up for it.

5. She wanted to be self-sufficient.

Gibbon’s mother told ABC New York that Gibbon refused to let her parents help her out financially. When it came to paying for film school, her mom said, “she wanted to make it on her own.”

6. She had a broadcast journalism degree.

According to NBC New York Gibbon obtained a degree in broadcast journalism from West Virginia University.

7. She felt comfortable in Jamaica.

Cali-Gibbon, told ABC New York: “She has family down there. She has cousins. She met a lot of new people that she had been hanging out for the last three weeks or so. So, she was comfortable with these new people she had met.” Her father also reportedly owned a hotel on the island.

8. She had an infectious smile.

Her boyfriend, Phil Rodriguez, told PIX 11, “Her smile could just melt somebody, like a Colgate ad. It would sparkle, you know?”

9. Her mom thinks she was killed by someone she knew.

Her mother thinks she was murdered by somebody she trusted. Cali-Gibbon thinks she was betrayed.  She told ABC New York that her model-daughter never ventured solo. No arrests have been made yet in her death.

[Photos: Facebook]