Police say rapper and wife tried to reconcile before killing, want to talk to boxer Mayweather

December 10, 2014 at 8:15AM

LOS ANGELES — Rapper Earl Warren Hayes and his estranged wife were trying to reconcile and she was optimistic about their chances only days before Hayes killed her and committed suicide, a police detective said Tuesday.

The bodies of Hayes, 34, and 30-year-old Stephanie Elyse Moseley were found Monday morning inside their Park La Brea unit in the Fairfax district after neighbors reported hearing gunshots and a woman screaming, police said.

Hayes was an acquaintance of professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and police have asked to interview him following media reports that he may have spoken to Hayes before the murder-suicide, homicide Detective Scott Masterson said.

"We know that there's a relationship there," Masterson said. "If he has anything significant to add to the investigation, we want to know."

Two attorneys for Mayweather told The Associated Press that they had not heard from the boxer. He was due in San Antonio for a fight on Friday.

Moseley was a dancer and actress who appeared in the VH1 cheerleader drama "Hit the Floor."

"We are incredibly saddened to hear the news of the passing of Stephanie Moseley," VH1 said in a statement. "VH1 and the entire 'Hit the Floor' family send our thoughts and condolences to her family and friends at this difficult time."

Hayes and Moseley had been married for five years before separating "but they had recently gotten back together and were trying to work things out," Masterson said.

Moseley had spoken to family members in Canada last Thursday and told them that "things were going pretty (well) and that she was upbeat and optimistic about things," the detective said.

Investigators don't know "what made it turn so violent Monday morning," he said.

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