Mom, Daughter Charged With Murder Over Illegal Butt Lift

'These individuals have no medical training'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 21, 2021 6:44 PM CDT
Murder Charges Filed After Butt Lift Goes Wrong
Police released these photos of Adame and Galaz.   (LAPD)

Police say aspiring adult film star Karissa Rajpaul posted video on social media of herself receiving a buttocks augmentation procedure. It's now evidence in a murder investigation. The 26-year-old South African woman died in a hospital on Oct. 15, 2019, the day of the unlicensed procedure, and mother and daughter Libby Adame, 51, and Alicia Galaz, 23, have now been charged with murder, CBS Los Angeles reports. Police say the pair claimed to be specialists and advertised cut-price plastic surgery procedures on social media. Investigators believe they have been carrying out the procedures in Los Angeles-area homes since 2012.

"These individuals have no medical training," LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton tells ABC7. "They're not experienced and they're putting people's lives at risk." He says investigators believe the women injected Rajpaul with a liquid silicon mix that included "chemicals and other substances that clearly are not appropriate for any medical procedure that would be performed on a human." He says investigators have spoken to other women who suffered long-term health effects after procedures carried out by Adame and Galaz. Police believe there could be many more victims and have urged them to come forward.

The coroner listed Rajpaul's cause of death as "homicide due to acute cardiopulmonary dysfunction and intramuscular/intravascular silicone injections," per CBSLA. LAPD Valley Bureau Homicide Detective Bob Dinlocker says the two women called 911 after the procedure went wrong but they fled the home as soon as paramedics arrived.

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Dinlocker says the women charged between $3,500 and $4,500 for the so-called "back alley butt lifts," which cost up to $15,000 when performed by licensed professionals, NBC Los Angeles reports. "The internet is filled with stories where they cut the medical-grade silicon with the stuff you would caulk your windows with," he says. "It hits the blood stream, attacks the heart, the brain, and the kidneys." (More plastic surgery stories.)

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