Woman, 36, found strangled in her Lower Merion apartment

Authorities on Thursday were investigating the death of a 36-year-old woman found strangled in the bedroom of her Main Line apartment.

The woman's body was discovered about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday inside her first-floor unit at the Cambridge Square apartments, 120 Sibley Ave., Ardmore, by Lower Merion police called to the location to conduct a wellness check.

The Montgomery County Coroner's Officer performed an autopsy on the woman, identified by Lower Merion police late Thursday as Christina Carlin-Kraft, formerly of New York. Published news reports said she was a model who once posed for Playboy.

Her death was ruled a homicide caused by "ligature strangulation."

"There does not appear to be any current concern for residents in the area," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and Lower Merion Township Police Superintendent Michael J. McGrath said in a statement announcing the homicide investigation.

Investigators reported no known motive or arrests as of Thursday evening.

The woman had just moved into her apartment last week, said a nearby resident who asked not to be identified.

Police had visited the apartment building, located on a one-way street a block from the Ardmore shopping district, for a reported robbery in the days prior to the woman's death.

Businesses owners nearby were visibly shaken by the news. Several said that investigators had spent the better part of the day at the apartment building processing the crime scene.

Some said police had visited their offices to pull surveillance video footage from their cameras facing the property.

Anyone with information that could help investigators is being asked to call the Lower Merion Police Department at 610-649-1000 or the Montgomery County Detective Bureau at 610-278-3368.