Mystery of dead centerfold ANNEKA VESTA aka ANNEKKA Di LORENZO who was Penthouse Pet of the Year and in “Caligula” baffles investigators after her corpse washes ashore at Camp Pendleton, The ENQUIRER has learned.
The body of Anneka Vasta, who was known as Anneka Di Lorenzo when she 1975 Penthouse Pet of the Year, was found in a restricted no man’s land where Marines train for battle on a Camp Pendleton beach, San Diego by two joggers last year.
At first based on the corpse’s appearance — slim, toned figure made the runners think the dead woman was that of a teenager but law enforcement later ID-ed the 58-year-old who once dreamed of be "the sexiest woman in the world", RadarOnline.com reported.
Nine months after the grim discovery, investigators are still stumped as to how Vasta, best known for starring in the 1979 soft-porn movie Caligula, and for a real life affair with Penthouse kingpin, Bob Guccione, landed on the beach.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is now opening the case open to the public, asking if anyone remembers seeing the attractive blond woman stopped along Interstate 5, where her car was found parked at a popular scenic overlook.
“The main unanswered question that we have is how she got from her vehicle to the water,” said Special Agent Rachel McGranaghan, one of two naval investigators leading the case.
“We know her life ended in the water, in some circumstance, we just don’t know how.”
According to investigators, if she had jumped her body would not have hit the water because the tide isn't high enough at that spot of the coast in the Marine Corps naval base.
Following her modeling and soft core films, Vasta separated herself from the adult industry after she successfully sued Penthouse and Guccione for sexual harassment.
She claimed that the magazine publisher pressured her to have sex with his business associates and won a groundbreaking legal victory in 1990 when a judge awarded her $4 million.
Tragically, her personal problems overshadowed her as the divorced nursing assistant was described as being increasingly emotionally unstable over the past eight years by her sister, Susan Thoreson of Sherman Oaks, California.
“When Anneka got paranoid, she would run away,” explained Thoreson, who lived near to her anxiety-ridden sister.
“It was that fear or flight stuff.”
Ironically, Anneka's last film appearance was in director Brian De Palma’s “Dressed to Kill” in 1980.
