The following article contains discussions about suicide and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Anneka Di Lorenzo was a prominent model and exploitation film star whose tragic and mysterious death remains unsolved. Born on September 6, 1952, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Marjorie Lee Thoreson fled to Los Angeles after her parents’ divorce (by. yahoo). There she worked as a topless dancer, cocktail waitress, and receptionist, often under pseudonyms. In 1973, she appeared in PenthouseUnder the name Anneka Di LorenzoThanks to the help of publisher Bob Guccione.
Guccione helped cast the Lorenzo in the controversial CaligulaAn erotic history film that Roger Ebert famously walked out of. Di Lorenzo continued acting in exploitation films like Mama’s Dirty Girls, Act of revengeAnd Messalina, Messalina!which came out first Caligula Due to the production problems of the film. Her final role came in the Michael Caine psychological horror thriller, Dressed to kill. Then tragically, years later, and after changing her name to Anneka Thoreson, The actress was found on a Southern California beach, deceased.
Anneka Di Lorenzo was found dead at Camp Pendelton Beach in 2011
What led to Lorenzo’s death is still uncertain
On the afternoon of January 4, 2011, two joggers stumbled upon the body of Anneka Di Lorenzo on a beach near Camp Pendelton, a Marine Corps base camp (by The San Diego Union Tribune). Di Lorenzo went by Anneka Vasta at the time, after her marriage to Philip Vasta ended in divorce a few years earlier. The 58-year-old actress was found with a broken back and neck and Investigators were initially unsure if she was murdered, took her own life or suffered an accident (via People).
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During the autopsy, doctors found no drugs in Di Lorenzo’s body. Investigators discovered Lorenzo’s car parked on top of 60-foot bluffs nearly a mile from where her body was found. Detectives determined that if Lorenzo had fallen or thrown from the bluff, she would not have reached the water because of the angle of the cliff and because the water did not rise high enough in that area. Navy Special Agent Rachel McGranaghan succinctly put it that way San Diego Union-Tribune,
“The main unanswered question we have is how she got from her vehicle to the water. We know her life ended in the water, in some circumstance, we just don’t know how.”
More evidence suggested something nefarious. On January 2, Lorenzo entered a room at a Motel 6. Searching her car, investigators found a woman’s leopard print blouse and sports bra, stained with blood, wrapped in a plastic bag, which they believed to be an Ice bucket liner from that motel. 6. In addition, they found a steak knife on the floor of the car with Lorenzo’s blood on it, and her body was found with shallow cuts in her wrists. Lorenzo’s family insisted that she would not have taken her own life And the case remains open.
Di Lorenzo’s lawsuit against Penthouse founder Bob Guccione explained
Anneka Di Lorenzo left behind a memorable legacy
Di Lorenzo’s life was not easy even before the events of January 2011. NYT). The lawsuit alleges that Guccione forced Lorenzo to have sexual relations with two of his business partners, and she compared her treatment to “sexual slavery”. Di Lorenzo was awarded $4 millionAlthough the decision was overturned on appeal (by The Times).
It seems that Di Lorenzo never had an easy path laid out in front of her, and she was made to experience some cruel parts of the world that many are lucky enough to avoid. But she kept going. She was a trained yoga instructor, married, had a daughter she sent to college, and was close to her family. Anneka Di Lorenzos life has an impact and sometimes that is enough.