'Storage Wars' Star Commits Suicide Days After Drug Arrest 
 
 'Storage Wars' Star Dies -- Mark Balelo Commits Suicide ... Days After Drug Arrest 
 
 EXCLUSIVE 
 
 " starkilled himself today by carbon monoxide poisoning ... TMZ has learned.Multiple sources close to Balelo tell us he was found dead in his car ... which was parked and running in the garage at his auction house in Simi Valley, CA.According to our sources, Balelo had been arrested for a drug-related offense on Saturday.We're told when Balelo got out of jail he was distraught, and asked his fiancée to come over because he was afraid he might hurt himself.We're told they met at his office on Sunday, they talked for a few hours, he took a 4 hour nap -- and when he woke up seemed better.The fiancée left Balelo at the office Sunday evening. We're told one of Balelo's employees found his body Monday morning.Balelo appeared on a handful of "Storage Wars" episodes over the past few seasons.Law enforcement sources tell us an autopsy will be conducted tomorrow. ||||| A Fallbrook woman jailed on suspicion of murder is due in court Thursday, a day after authorities confirmed that the body found in a remote Temecula site was that of missing Fallbrook woman Brittany Killgore. 
 
 Killgore, 22, was last seen Friday evening and reported missing Saturday, after a stranger called her family from the woman's cellphone, according to her maternal grandmother. 
 
 The young woman ---- who was divorcing a Camp Pendleton Marine deployed to Afghanistan ---- had packed her bags, shipped her belongings home and was three days away from getting on a plane to stay with her parents in Pennsylvania, the grandmother said. 
 
 Her body was found Tuesday, not long after a second Fallbrook woman reportedly left a suicide note telling investigators where to find the body. That woman, Jessica Lynn Lopez, 25, was found with self-inflicted stab wounds in a Point Loma motel Tuesday morning, authorities said. 
 
 Lopez was briefly hospitalized before she was arrested. A long-time Escondido resident who had moved to Fallbrook, Lopez is due to be arraigned Thursday on one count of murder, according to the San Diego County district attorney's office. Her parents live in Escondido. 
 
 A second person tied to the case, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Louis Ray Perez, was in court Wednesday to face unrelated gun and theft charges. Authorities said they found Perez in possession of a stolen military assault rifle. 
 
 During Perez's arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza labeled Perez as "a person of interest" in a homicide case, but stopped short of naming Killgore as the victim. The judge found Perez to be a flight risk and a danger to the community, and set Perez's bail at $500,000. 
 
 Sheriff's detectives said Perez was the last person seen with Killgore before she went missing. Authorities said she was dressed up, and may have been planning to visit the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego on Friday night. Her cellphone was found there Saturday, reportedly by a homeless person who tried to sell it. 
 
 Authorities didn't say how the trio were connected. Espinoza said "they were not strangers," but declined to say if he was referring to all three of them. 
 
 Online records indicate, and a neighbor confirmed Wednesday, that Perez and Lopez lived in the same Fallbrook home. Perez is married and has been a Marine for 16 years, his defense attorney told Superior Court Judge Sim Von Kalinowski. 
 
 A privacy request 
 
 On Wednesday, Lopez's family released a statement asking for privacy. 
 
 "We are dealing with a lot as a family right now," read the statement, which was released by family attorney and neighbor Dean Broyles. "We love our daughter Jessica and have nothing to share with you at this time. ... Please do not call our homes, knock on our doors, or camp outside our homes and harass our neighbors and friends." 
 
 Broyles said the Lopez family asked for the public to be patient and allow the legal process to work. 
 
 "We trust that everything will be revealed in due course," the statement said. "Until then, we pray for Brittany Killgore's family, our daughter Jessica and all those affected by this situation." 
 
 Fallbrook resident Greg Weber said Lopez and Perez moved into a house near his, in the 300 block of East Fallbrook Road, about three years ago. He said the pair were roommates, and not romantically involved. The owner of the home also lived there, he said. 
 
 Weber, 42, said Lopez and Perez were acquaintances ---- but he knew them by different names, apparently aliases. 
 
 "They were friends and they were good people ---- to us, they were very good," Weber said. "I don't know what else to say." 
 
 Lopez was friendly, Weber said, and she worked long shifts as a caregiver for the elderly. Weber said he last saw Lopez Monday, and she appeared normal. 
 
 But about 10:30 p.m. that night, he said, investigators showed up and searched the home for more than four hours. 
 
 Weber also said investigators interviewed both him and his girlfriend, who had previously seen Killgore at the home. 
 
 He said he heard that Killgore had been killed in Lopez's bedroom, on the bottom floor of the two-story home. He pointed to the room, the inside of which was visible through an open window. A piece of plywood lay on the ground beneath the window, with a downed curtain rod on top of it. 
 
 Plans to move home 
 
 In a 2007 online journal entry, Killgore listed two things she wanted to do before she died: "travel. everywhere!" and "find people to always be with and love." 
 
 Just a teenager at the time, she described herself in some detail, writing, "i'm so insecure sometimes its not even funny," "you can win me over with a crude joke," and "i effing love cupcakes." 
 
 Her list of turn-offs included stupidity, cockiness, disrespect, and a lack of a sense of humor. Turn-ons included humor and sweetness. 
 
 Killgore's grandmother, Cheryl Coble of Farmington, Mo., told her hometown newspaper that Killgore's mother called police after a stranger called her from Killgore's cellphone. A homeless man found Killgore's cellphone and was trying to sell it to a stranger, Coble said. 
 
 She said authorities went to Killgore's apartment and found her carry-on bag and laptop case, which Killgore had planned to tote onto a plane to Pennsylvania. She was supposed to fly to her parents' home on Tuesday, Coble said. 
 
 "She just wanted to be at her parents' house," Coble said. 
 
 Killgore's belongings already had been packed and shipped to her parents' home, according to her grandmother. 
 
 According to court records, Killgore married in July 2010, but had separated from her husband. She filed for divorce a week before she went missing. 
 
 Killgore's father, Darryl Wrest, and her grandfather, Jim, who lives in Farmington, flew out to North County and handed out photos of the missing woman. Killgore's mother, Michelle Allen Wrest, has been in Pennsylvania with her other daughter and newborn granddaughter. 
 
 According to Coble, Killgore was supposed to go out with Perez and another woman on a dinner cruise, but her family was not sure if they ever made it. The other woman backed out at the last minute. 
 
 As Killgore's family comes to grips with their loss, the slain woman's estranged husband, Cory Killgore, was arranging to travel back to the United States from Afghanistan. Authorities said he was not considered a suspect in the case. 
 
 Patricia Pagdilao, 20, a neighbor in an apartment below Brittany and Cory Killgore, said she knew Brittany Killgore only in passing, but said the young woman appeared to have an active social life. 
 
 "She was always nice," Pagdilao said. "She was always with friends; she was never alone."
– Mark Balelo, a businessman who starred in a handful of Storage Wars episodes, was found dead at his workplace yesterday, the Ventura County Star reports. Though officials have not yet given a cause of death, multiple sources including TMZ are reporting the 40-year-old committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, and that he was found dead in his running car inside a garage at his California auction house. Balelo had been arrested Saturday on suspicion of methamphetamine possession, and was scheduled to appear in court next Tuesday. Sources say Balelo was upset when he was released from jail, and had his fiancée come over to make sure he didn't hurt himself. She left after a few hours, when he seemed better, on Sunday night; an employee found his body the next morning. Balelo's business bought the contents of storage lockers and liquidated them; he was featured on the show as a "deep-pocketed buyer," Huffington Post notes, and was best known for returning a stolen comic book worth $1 million to Nicolas Cage. Storage Wars is currently under scrutiny since a former cast member claimed the show is rigged.