"He threw away pieces of his fiancée like she was trash. The mother of his newborn baby."
LA County Sheriff’s OfficeBlake Leibel was a screenwriter and graphic novelist, now known for the brutal 2016 murder of his fiancee.
Blake Leibel could have simply been known for the graphic novels he created. The son of a prominent Toronto real estate mogul, Leibel had what other artists could only dream of: the time and money to freely pursue his creative endeavors.
But his 2010 graphic novel Syndrome, which tells the story of a sadistic doctor and the serial killer he is studying, feels more like an ominous warning than a work of fiction. Leibel described Syndrome as a story of “obsession” — and his own deadly obsession is what propelled him to infamy.
In 2015, after suddenly ending things with his wife, Blake Leibel got engaged to a Ukrainian model named Iana Kasian. Kasian gave birth to their daughter Diana about a year later, in May 2016. Her attention was, naturally, all on their baby. Leibel, on the other hand, reportedly couldn’t handle not being the center of Kasian’s attention.
Rather than work things out or split up, however, Leibel’s mind led him down a darker path. He tortured and mutilated Kasian before killing her, draining her body of its blood and cleaning it. When police found her dead in the apartment, Leibel was lying next to her.
Their three-week-old daughter was in the care of Kasian’s mother at the time.
And as more information about the police investigation came to light, the truth about who Blake Leibel was, and what he was capable of, became clear. Some media reports even called it “the most gruesome murder in the history of West Hollywood if not Los Angeles.”
Blake Leibel’s Life Before The Gruesome Murder
BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesBlake Leibel (center) is the son of a Canadian real estate mogul.
Blake Leibel was born on May 8, 1981, into wealth. His father Lorne Leibel is one of Canada’s wealthiest real estate developers, and his mother Eleanor Chitel Leibel was the heiress to Alros Productions.
Both Blake and his brother Cody benefitted from their parents’ prominence, based on a Los Angeles Times report that Blake had been receiving a $18,000 allowance each month after moving to California in 2004. Not having to worry about money let Blake Leibel focus on pursuing his dream of working in Hollywood without the baggage of struggling to pay rent or earn a paycheck.
In fact, legal documents filed after his mother’s death in 2011 officially stated that Blake had no income, meaning he was living — and supporting, at the time, a wife and child — solely on the money he received from his parents.
He didn’t just laze about, though. He has some credits as a creative consultant on Spaceballs: The Animated Series, in addition to directing three episodes of the show and a poorly rated 2009 comedy film, Bald. But just one year after Bald released, Leibel caught what would ultimately be his big break.
That year, Archaia, a prominent graphic novel publishing company, published Syndrome, the story of a neuropathologist who believes he has identified “the root of all evil in the recesses of the human brain” and partners with a Hollywood actress, a disgraced director, and a condemned serial killer to prove it. In the novel, the serial killer, notably, murdered a man by slitting his throat and then hanging him by the ankles so he would bleed out.
At the time, it was moderately well received, but in hindsight many have viewed Syndrome as a sort of “blueprint” for the eventual murder Leibel would commit.
Blake Leibel’s Complicated Love Life
Olga KasianBlake Leibel and Iana Kasian.
Fast-forward five years and Leibel had suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, left his wife Amanda Braun. The two first met back in 2006 and already had one child together, with a second on the way. Yet Leibel clearly didn’t want to stick around.
While the timeline isn’t exactly clear, he met Iana Kasian, a Ukrainian woman who had recently moved to Los Angeles to work as a model. Just a few months after they met, Kasian was pregnant with Leibel’s child.
“I think for a lot of women, Blake was a good catch,” Hollywood Reporter writer and consultant with 48 Hours Scott Johnson told CBS.
Sure, the Leibel family had their troubles. Cody, Blake’s brother, was a notorious gambler for instance, and Blake seemed to always live in his brother’s shadow. Their father reportedly showered Cody with attention while ignoring Blake, and Cody had followed in their father’s footsteps, becoming a real estate agent and later owning a record label. Blake, on the other hand, had spent more time with their mother growing up and wanted to be a Hollywood auteur.
That desire for attention was a recurring issue for Blake. When he and Iana Kasian first started seeing each other, it seemed like he was finally receiving the love he had always wanted, and according to those who knew them, they seemed happy together. In the back of his mind, though, he was always afraid of losing everything — and that his brother’s gambling debt would be the cause.
But as it turned out, Kasian wasn’t the only woman Leibel was seeing at the time. The divorce with Braun wasn’t finalized, he was living with Kasian, and at the same time he was seeing a woman named Constance Buccafurri, who was living in a home that Blake Leibel owned.
Then, in May 2016, Buccafurri accused Leibel of sexually assaulting her in that home. Leibel was arrested shortly after, and to make matters worse, it was Kasian who had to bail him out.
Olga KasianOlga Kasian with her daughter, granddaughter, and Blake Leibel.
By then, Kasian was only a few weeks postpartum. She had been spending more time at her mother’s apartment trying to care for Diana, and the news that Diana’s father had just been arrested for sexual assault naturally caused tension between Kasian and Leibel. And according to Kasian’s mother, Leibel didn’t seem to care.
“[Blake] constantly demanded sex, and that he could leave her for another woman,” Olga Kasian said. Iana Kasian was recovering from a C-section.
“He was controlling her like a hawk,” Olga said. “He wanted her to do everything he wanted.”
And though she begged her daughter to leave Leibel, she would not. The idea of her daughter being stuck with a man like Blake Leibel was a horrifying one as it was, but tragically, the story would play out far worse than anyone could have imagined.
The Gruesome Murder Of Iana Kasian
Olga and Iana went shopping on May 23, 2016, when Leibel sent Iana a barrage of texts. She quickly rushed off to see him, leaving Diana with her mother. The next day, however, Olga could not get ahold of her daughter.
Iana Kasian was just 30 years old when she was killed.
“I did try to call her and — the calls went to the voice message,” Olga recalled. “…all of a sudden, I had this feeling that I had to go there… I wanted to go there. But the baby was sleeping.”
After frantic calls to the police and no new information about her daughter, Olga took a taxi to Leibel’s apartment. She saw him through a window and began shouting at him, but he refused to acknowledge her or let her inside. Finally, after one final call, police arrived to help her. With no indication of foul play at the time, though, they did not enter the home, and several hours passed with Leibel refusing to open the door.
The next day, Olga Kasian called the police again and begged for help. She believed something bad had happened to Iana — and this time, police agreed to enter the apartment, fearing that Iana might be in medical distress due to how recently she had given birth.
Inside, though, they found no sign of Leibel or Kasian. The living room was a mess, and as they moved through the apartment they found that Leibel had barricaded himself in the master bedroom with a mattress. Leibel refused to come out, telling police that Kasian wasn’t home. Eventually, after getting a call from Leibel, a friend arrived and convinced him to come out.
But nothing could prepare the officers there that day for the horrific scene they would find inside.
LA County Sheriff’s OfficeThe headboard of Leibel’s bed, stained with Kasian’s blood.
“Been to a lotta crime scenes over the years, but walking into that one was just different,” recalled homicide detective William Cotter. “Stepping intot he hallway that led to the bedrooms, then things started to appear… You started to see blood… saw the bloody headboard, blood on the walls.”
Leibel had tried to clean things up. He hadn’t done a very good job. As detectives made their way into the master bedroom, they saw Kasian, bloody and dead, covered in a Mickey Mouse blanket. The damage to her body could only be described, as Detective Rob Martindale put it, as “sadistic.” Her scalp had been removed, and she had been drained of her blood.
Somehow, Blake Leibel tried to deny any involvement in Kasian’s killing. All he told investigators that day was, “Science is gonna tell you who did this.”
He was right, in the end, but the evidence only pointed to one man: Blake Leibel.
Blake Leibel Was Found Guilty And Sentenced To Life In Prison
During Leibel’s trial, the full extent of his brutality was revealed. It had not been a quick killing. Kasian was believed to have been alive for eight hours during the attack, during which she fought back. As People reported, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman described Kasian’s death as “very slow, excruciating, painful” in court.
Officially, Iana Kasian died of blunt force trauma to the head. Things took a darker turn after that, though.
After she died, Blake Leibel scalped the 30-year-old new mother, then drained her body of its blood. Portions of her face were also torn off.
Olga KasianLeibel’s motive was seemingly a desire for power and attention.
Prosecutors made the case that Leibel had been jealous of how much time Kasian had been spending with their daughter. He was desperate for the attention their new child was receiving, and when Kasian could not provide that for him, he snapped. His motive, they argued, was power and control, nothing more.
“What is the ultimate act of power and control?” Silverman asked. “It’s taking somebody’s life, right? Taking away their future. Taking away everything they dreamed they were going to be: A mother, a parent, a daughter, a wife.”
In the end, Blake Leibel was found guilty and convicted of multiple felonies including mayhem and torture. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
“He’s always gotten everything he wants when he wants it, but he also has an underlying violent fantasy life that he’s been mentally rehearsing for years,” said forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie. “And so when the rage comes out, it takes the form of those fantasies.”
And Leibel had outlined those dark fantasies before, years prior, in Syndrome.
Next, read up on the torturous murders perpetrated by “Kansas City Butcher” Bob Berdella. Then, have a look at the horrific abuse and death suffered by Junko Furuta.
