Gabriela Kabrins, the 39-year-old daughter of longtime Malibu restaurateurs Howdy and Linda Kabrins, was found dead in a hotel room in Cape Town, South Africa, last week, local sources have confirmed.
It is suspected Gabriela was murdered by her boyfriend, a 41-year-old Guatemalan national named Diego Dougherty, who was discovered “wandering a nearby beach half naked” the morning following her murder and is now in police custody in South Africa, according to the British news site Daily Mail Online.
On Tuesday, Dougherty was charged with Gabriala’s premeditated murder.
Gabriela was a graduate of Malibu’s Pepperdine University and a successful Los Angeles-based marketing executive. She founded the marketing and advertising firm Conexíon in 2002, which caters to the Hispanic community and is run out of Los Angeles and Miami.
“Born and raised in Los Angeles and of Mexican descent, Gaby is passionate about sharing the traditions of her Hispanic culture,” reads her profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn.
Multiple news agencies report that Gabriela’s body was discovered Wednesday, July 29, at the five-star Camps Bay Retreat Boutique Hotel in Cape Town. Authorities believe drugs played a role in her death, as there was a little over a pound (half a kilo) of cocaine discovered in the room.
According to official sources, half a kilo of cocaine would fetch up to $26,381 at wholesale prices.
The Daily Mail reports that South African police indicated there were also “horrific” signs of sexual assault involved with the murder.
As of Tuesday, there is no official word as to her cause of death, though an autopsy has been performed with results pending.
Little is known about the man charged with her murder. Various news sources have claimed that Dougherty does not speak English and may have been in town on vacation with Gabriela or to carry out a drug deal.
The hotel where Gabriela was found is located in Camps Bay, an exclusive upscale neighborhood of Cape Town overlooking the Atlantic coast.
The resort’s website calls itself “a refuge for the body and a haven for the mind,” with suites costing up to 12,840 South African Rands, or over $1,000, per night during peak dates.
Sources told The Malibu Times Howdy Kabrins traveled to Cape Town this weekend to identify and claim his daughter’s body.
Howdy Kabrins, whose popular burrito joint Howdy’s closed in the fall of 2014, has owned and operated restaurants in Malibu since the 1980s. He brought the original La Salsa to PCH in 1987, and later opened Howdy’s Taqueria in the Malibu Country Mart in 1995.