Instagram Model Dead After Stalker Breaks Into Her Home In Murder-Suicide Case

“She was so famous in her world, and so loved in ours,” the victim’s mother says.

October 28, 2021

Miss Mercedes Morr via Instagram

Janae Gagnier, known as Miss Mercedes Morr

By: Aaron Rasmussen

A popular Instagram influencer was found murdered in her Texas home and the attacker died in the victim’s bedroom.

“She's a person. That was our baby,” Jeanetta Grover told KTRK-TV about her daughter. “She was so famous in her world, and so loved in ours.”

Known on social media as Miss Mercedes Morr, Jenae Gagnier, 33, amassed almost three million followers on Instagram. Among them was the man who would take her life, police believe.

On the evening of August 29, Mark Gagnier headed to his daughter’s Richmond home after he, friends and family grew concerned because they had not heard from Jenae over the weekend. “My monthly conversation is: ‘Jenae you have all these followers. Some probably because they love you, some because they like your look, some more crazy, and some obsessed,’” he recalled telling her.

“My daughter was beautiful,” he said. “That scared the hell out of me.”

The father’s worst fears were realized when he and his girlfriend arrived at Jenae’s house and discovered it locked and she didn’t answer his phone calls. “I knew something was up, so I didn't hesitate to kick the door down,” Mark said. “What I saw, I wouldn't want any parent to go through.”

Mark at first thought Jenae had an accident when he found her with her clothes torn and lying curled up and dead at the base of a staircase. But when he went upstairs to Jenae’s bedroom, he discovered 34-year-old Kevin Alexander Accorto with a knife stuck into his neck.

“He was twitching, he was gurgling,” Gagnier said of the suspected killer from Florida, who eventually died from his self-inflicted wound. “I could look in the room and there's writings all over the wall.”

“Janae led me to think she cared about me but wore another man’s ring,” read one, according to the publication, while in others Accorto wrote: “I should’ve stayed in Florida”; “I wish I’d never met her”; and “I was used for money.”

Investigators do not believe Accorto and the victim had any connection beyond social media.

“Unfortunately, someone basically was stalking, and killed my baby,” Grover said of her daughter.

A coroner later determined Jenae died from traumatic concussion and strangulation.

“She was so loving and such a kind spirit,” Grover told Rolling Stone. “She was Mercedes Morr to so many. But she was Jenae Gagnier to her family and her loved ones, who miss her dearly.”

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