By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HELL'S KITCHEN — A 41-year-old event planner was found stabbed to death in his apartment Thursday and police are looking for a man who moved into his apartment after they met at the gym, according to published reports.
John Lea was found under a pile of clothing about 2:30 p.m. Thursday after friends went to his apartment when he failed to show up for work, police said. Lea's LinkedIn profile indicates that he worked as a Manager of Event Services for the New York Society of Security Analysts for about seven months.
Police said Lea's throat was slashed and he had “several defensive wounds” on his hands, the New York Times reports.
NYPD were looking for Lea's roommate on Thursday night. The Daily News reports that Lea met the man at the gym recently and was allowing him to live in his W. 46th Street apartment.
Michael Herz, a co-worker of Lea's, told the Daily News his live-in lover, who friends identify as Justin Waller, was struggling financially and was only meant to stay with Lea for a few days.
"A few days turned into a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a month. A month turned into two," Herz told the Daily News. "This weekend is when John was going to tell him he had to leave."
