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Originally posted onMay 10, 2025 @ 5:35 pm
The Playboy Murders Recap for Last Dance
The season premiere of ID’s The Playboy Murders is titled Last Dance and covers the story of Kimberly Fattorini.
On July 21st, 2017, police received a call about a person unconscious and not breathing. Paramedics arrive and see a woman in a disheveled black bra and unbuttoned black pants. She is declared dead at the scene and was said to have overdosed.
She is later identified as Playboy casting assistant Kimberly Fattorini.
At this time, Kimberly was working for the magazine, which was becoming a part of mainstream media in order to maintain its place in pop culture.
Tawnie Jaclyn was a childhood friend of Kimberly’s and talks about their lives and how Kimberly was so beautiful and intimidating. Carrie Overgaard echoes these sentiments, saying how kind and sweet Kimberly was.
Sam Rhima recalls meeting Kimberly in 2008 and working with her at Playboy and how her personality stood out, allowing them to eventually fall in love.
He also explains the casting process for both the magazine and TV, while Holly Madison talks about how women would use the brand as a steppingstone for a career in acting or modeling.
Tawnie and Carrie talk about working with Kimberly on Playboy projects and how she would be so sweet and attentive to the girls.
Despite this, Kimberly never posed for the magazine herself out of respect for her family. She instead did other behind the scenes things that didn’t require her to be nude, which led to her getting other opportunities in modeling and acting.
Kimberly and friends would party on weekends, which Holly said would get pretty wild. Nightclubs would bring the Playboy ladies into their VIP sections to promote events and offer them free food, booze and other such things.
Tawnie says that Kimberly and Sam kept things pretty safe.
Before long, Kimberly wanted to get married and start a family, but Sam wasn’t ready, leading to a breakup. She moved out and in with Tawnie. The ladies would go out and enjoy life, leading to her meeting a club promoter named Eli Wehbe. He was the top guy in the club scene, but Tawnie wasn’t really a fan of him or his attitude.
During this time, Sam was working on getting back together with Kimberly.
The club scene was filled with drugs, booze and people taking advantage of one another, putting many in dangerous situations.
Holly talks about her own situations and how she kept herself safe by not drinking and being aware of her situations.
On the night of Kimberly’s death, she went out with a friend named Monica, but Carrie and Tawnie would stay in. Neither trusted Monica and would check social media to check on Kimberly.
Tawnie recalls Kimberly not coming home that night and how the next afternoon, Monica called to say Kimberly was with her and not breathing. She and Sam would head to her house to assess the situation. This is when they realized Kimberly was dead.
Monica said that Kimberly was drinking and doing cocaine the night before and found Kimberly unconscious the next day. This leads to authorities thinking she simply died of an overdose.
Sam didn’t believe this, nor did Tawnie or Carrie. They think the most she did was have a few drinks.
Nik Richie says the truth was much darker than this….and how Hollywood is a dangerous place.
Holly talks about how Playboy keeps things like this quiet, while Kimberly’s family and loved ones were left devastated.
The autopsy showed no sexual assault while rumors spread about Kimberly’s drug and alcohol use.
Toxicology reports showed cocaine, booze and GHB in her system, showing that Kimberly was slipped something in her drink that night. By then, it was too late do to further tests for sexual assault.
Monica was questioned about this, with Monica saying they went to Eli’s and did cocaine. This is when they learned that Shawne Merriman showed up. He was a player for the San Diego Chargers and known for his antics on the gridiron.
They all then went to Monica’s, where the party continued. Monica fell asleep on the couch and when she woke up, she found Shawne and Kimberly in her bed. She sends them to the couch and the next day finds Kimberly and Shawne in the living room, with Shawne leaving because he doesn’t want to be involved. He is questioned by police.
Text message shows how Kimberly and Eli talked about meeting up while Eli and Shawne talked about meeting girls and drugs. However, there was not enough evidence to prove Shawne did anything wrong, so he is released and the case is closed.
Sam is convinced there is a major cover up that happened.
Two years later, police got an anonymous document that eventually went viral.
Kimberly’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Eli, Shawne and Monica. More texts show that Kimberly was aware she was drugged and asked for help, only to be ignored.
Shawne denied any involvement and released a statement regarding the matter, as did Eli.
Kimberly’s friends are upset with how things were handled and think more should have been done.
The lawsuit is still pending.
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