We have been following the death of Playboy Playmate Kimberly Fattorini in our group Death After Dark for years. You can view Kim’s instagram account here.
We first stumbled across her death in July 2017 on the Los Angeles Medical Examiner site – she was assigned case number 2017-05435. The cause of her death was almost immediately deferred, and so we waited. And waited. And waited. And then her entry disappeared from the ME site.
Media reports emerged about the day that Kim died – L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters responded around 3:20 p.m. on July 21 to a report of a woman found unconscious at the West Knoll Drive apartment. Several hours later, deputies and employees of the Coroner’s Office removed the body of the woman, now identified as Fattorini, from the building.
A spokesperson in the Coroner’s Office said the cause of death hasn’t been determined yet. But, he said, there was evidence that Fattorini had been out with friends the night before, drinking and possibly using drugs. Acquaintances of Fattorini’s have posted statements online that she was attending a party at the Playboy Mansion.
There were many online rumors about the circumstances leading up to her death.
Her boyfriend at the time of her death, Sam Rhima, posted that she did not die from an overdose.
Her death was mentioned on Lipstick Alley – Kim was an assistant casting director for Playboy and a sugar baby. She was at a party and her two colleagues were egging her on to drink and do more drugs. One friend was with her, and another friend was pushing Kim through FaceTime. She ended up overdosing and dying. Her friends have been outed as being broke sugar babies and drug addicts. “
More than a year after Kim died, a true miracle happened! Kim’s Medical Examiner entry was restored and her cause of death was finally public:
At the time of Kim’s death, we requested a copy of her autopsy report from the Medical Examiner. It was finally sent to us in December 2018.
Based on the police report above, we assumed that her death was an unintentional overdose and we tried to move on with our lives.
Sam Rhima edited his original instagram post about Kimberly’s cause of death:
The online rumors started to be proven true in 2019, almost two years after Kim’s death. Radar Online reported that Kim’s family had launched a lawsuit against NFL player Shawne Merriman in relation to Kim’s death:
Deann and Ferdinand Fattorini have sued Merriman and a nightclub, accusing them of drugging and possibly assaulting Kimberly prior to her passing.
In April 2020, an instagram account called Celeb TM posted some of the legal documents relating to Kim’s case. You can read the entire 44 page wrongful death suit here. Shawne Merriman and club promoter Elias Wehbe are named as defendants in the document.
The document reveals that the Medical Examiner did not carry out sexual abuse testing on Kim and that her body was not photographed.
Text messages between those involved were also included in the document:
Kim texted Wehbe and said that her drink had been spiked:
Details of the 911 call made by Victoria/Monica after she discovered Kim were also made public:
Text messages that were sent after Kim’s cause of death was made public, were also included:
Elias Wehbe has since deleted his instagram account. You can view Shawne Merriman’s account here.
Elias did respond to the lawsuit via his website:
Shawne has continued to be a dick online:
The Warwick, which was the venue named in the lawsuit, posted this on their social media and have since deleted it:
Tawnie Jaclyn, a close friend of Kim’s, posted the following about her death:
Another example of someone saying sorry because he got caught.
Bingo.