Drop Dead Gorgeous: The Unsolved Murder Of Model Paula Sladewski.

Paula Sladewski

"I’ll never get to see her again until we meet one day in heaven.”

She was a knockout and when she'd enter a room, heads would turn. She was bubbly and vivacious. Paula was full of life and loved animals, especially her two little dogs. Paula also loved looking good. As a toddler she would get into her sister's makeup and put it all over her face. As she grew up in Detroit, Michigan she was in dancing classes and enjoyed the attention her good looks brought her. She was a straight A student in school. 

Paula's mother, Patsy Watkins, wanted her to be a nurse and for a time that is what Paula wanted as well. So she went to college in California to study for a nursing career and which she financed by modeling.

Paula appeared in the 2003 video Playboy: The Ultimate Playmate Search. She also was working as an exotic dancer in strip clubs, which helped pay for her rich lifestyle. Patsy begged her daughter to leave that life behind and come back home, but Paula wouldn't listen.

Paula then moved in with Kevin Klym, who seemed to Paula's sister as a decent guy, but the family didn't really know him.

The last time Patsy saw Paula, Paula was on her way to Miami Beach. She told her mother that she'd be back to see her on her birthday and that she had something special planned.

A New Year's Eve Lady Gaga concert at the Fontainebleau brought 26-year-old Paula and her boyfriend Kevin from Michigan to Miami Beach. They spent the rest of the weekend clubbing. In the early hours of Sunday, January 3rd, 2010, they were at a night club named "Club Space"  at 34 NE 11 Street when Klym reportedly got kicked out of the club after arguing with Paula. She was dancing with all sorts of men and they were all over her and Klym just wanted to get Paula out of there. 

Klym took a cab back to their hotel in Miami Beach, and Paula stayed behind for another half a hour until she too was made to leave. Grainy camera footage shows Paula leaving the club around 7:20 a.m. with three bouncers following behind.

At 11:30 a.m., Klym woke up in the hotel room alone, that is when he realized that Paula wasn't there and became concerned. He talked to hotel staff, but they hadn't seen her. He then called around to hospitals. With no sign of Paula, Klym then went out to search for her and so people her picture on his cellphone. He had to do so on foot because he didn't have a vehicle. 

With the search coming up fruitless, Klym reported Paula missing to the police. Desperate to find her, he also hired private investigator David Wasser. Wasser scoured the area and talked to cab drivers as well as street artists and homeless people, but he came up empty as well.

Klym then called the medical examiner's office. A Jane Doe had been found 12 miles from Club Space.

Fourteen hours after Paula had left the club, her burned body had found later that day in a dumpster at NW 14 Avenue and 130 Street next to what was then a propane company. A resident named Christopher Michael had seen the fire and called police. Paula was identified through dental records.

Paula's family was heartbroken. Her mother contemplated suicide. To this day she still struggles to live without her daughter and wears Paula's ashes everywhere she goes.

Authorities couldn't come to a conclusion how she had died, but they do believe that she was deceased before being set on fire. It is thought that since there was no apart gunshot or knife wounds that Paula was strangled to death.

Since he was one of the last people to see her alive, Klym was initially a suspect. Paula reportedly told a friend she was afraid of Klym, and her stepfather told media outlets she and Klym had a "horrible relationship."  Paula had told her mother that Klym had threatened that if she ever left him, that he'd killer and cut her up into pieces. Klym also had been arrested on a domestic violence charge from breaking Paula's nose. Police interrogated  Klym for over 10 hours. He seemed genuinely  distraught and cooperated every step of the way.

Police ultimately cleared Klym after his alibi checked out and when they released a sketch of a possible suspect that some said they saw leave the club with Paula. The suspect was described as a heavyset black male or Hispanic male with a goatee. Klym went on the Today show to say the sketch looked like a bouncer from the club.

However, Space issued a statement at the time saying the person seen following Paula on video wasn't an employee at the club. The club's owner said three employees saw the man walk up to Paula on the street in front of the club, talk to her, and walk away with her.

Police questioned Klym, club employees, witnesses, and the person who reported the fire. Everyone was cleared. Unfortunately, Klym reportedly kept Paula's phone when he left the club, so they couldn't use it to track Paula's path. There were no cameras to show where she went beyond the club exit. 

When you come out of Club Space, there's a row of taxis that circle the club. So investigators say that she could've jumped in a cab, gotten a ride from someone. She could have gone anywhere and done anything.

Investigators think whoever killed Paula must have known the area where her body was left because it was out of the way and wasn't highly traveled. It is theorized that she was killed somewhere else before being brought to the dumpster and being set on fire.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 or the North Miami Police Department at 305-891-0924.