A recent contestant on America's Next Top Model was killed in a triple slaying in Charlotte, North Carolina, police said on 25 February.

Police said Mirjana Puhar, 19, was among three people whose bodies were found in a home on 24 February. Emmanuel Jesus Rangel, 19, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with three counts of murder, Charlotte police said in a statement.

Law enforcement sources say the preliminary investigation leads police to believe the murders were drug related -- and the victims knew the killer.

The celebrity news website TMZ reported that Puhar appeared in the modeling show's 21<sup>st cycle, which began airing last August. She was eliminated from the show in the 10th episode.

A spokeswoman for the CW network, which carries the show, could not be immediately reached for comment.

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