Model, 36, found strangled in her Main Line apartment

Authorities are investigating the death of a 36-year-old model found strangled in the bedroom of her Main Line apartment.

Christina Carlin-Kraft'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. officials said Thursday.

The Montgomery County Coroner's Officer performed an autopsy and ruled the death a homicide caused by "ligature strangulation," meaning the killer used a cord-like object, such as a rope, as the weapon.

"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.

In her Model Mayhem profile, Carlin-Kraft listed New York as her home and said her credits included photo shoots for David Yurman, Vanity Fair Magazine, Victoria's Secret, Playboy Magazine, Maxim Magazine and QVC.

"I really do enjoy photoshoots for swim wear and tastefull (sic) lingerie," she wrote.

Stuart Kraft, Carlin-Kraft's father, declined to speak with a reporter Friday morning.

Another relative, who asked that her name be withheld as the family mourns, said Carlin-Kraft had "a beautiful heart and made everyone laugh."

Her presence lit up any room, the relative said. And her stunning features always turned heads.

"She was just a good person," the relative said. "And our family misses her dearly."

Carlin-Kraft grew up in South Jersey, in the Northfield area of Atlantic County. Aside from her modeling career, she also occasionally worked as a interior designer.

She had told her family that she enjoyed her neighborhood in Ardmore and that she felt safe there.

"This is just completely unexpected," the relative said. "We never thought this could happen."

A longtime friend of the victim said Friday that Carlin-Kraft had been living in the apartment for the better part of a year.

The unit is owned by Carlin-Kraft's boyfriend, a Wall Street banker who grew up in nearby Wynnewood, said the friend, who asked not to be identified. The couple had been dating for about nine years, after having met while Carlin-Kraft worked as a waitress at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

"She was just delightful, the sweetest person," the friend said. "The whole thing is just shocking."

The friend, who works as a contractor, had often visited the apartment to help fix minor issues.

Crime-scene tape still cordoned off a grassy stretch adjacent to the building Friday morning.

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 Carlin-Kraft'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.

In 2016, Carlin-Kraft found herself in the gossip sheets following an altercation at a Manhattan restaurant.

According to the New York Post, prosecutors dismissed misdemeanor charges of assault, attempted assault and harassment against the model on the condition that she stay out of trouble for six months.

"She was a nice person, and I'm not just speaking good of the dead," said Dan Ollen, the lawyer who represented Carlin-Kraft in the assault case.