Murdered Playboy Model Seen on Nightclub Surveillance Video

Jan. 11, 2010— -- Surveillance video shows Playboy model Paula Sladewski leaving Miami's Club Space just hours before she was found murdered and set on fire in a back-alley dumpster.

Sladewski's sister confirmed to ABC News that the blond woman seen on the tape leaving the night club at 7:21 a.m. Jan. 3 was the 26-year-old model who appeared in Playboy magazine and the 2003 movie "Playboy: The Ultimate Playmate Search."

On the video, two men who are initially talking in the lobby of the club, move to exit right after Sladewski leaves.

"It's clear in the video, the guy following her out," said David Wasser, a private investigator hired by Sladewski's boyfriend after the model went missing.

According to Wasser, who obtained the surveillance video from Club Space and turned it over to police, the men seen on tape are bouncers at the nightclub and need to be questioned further about the death of Sladewski.

"Those bouncers know everything," he told ABC News. "They followed her out when she came walking by as you can see in that tape. They just bolt like lightning following her out the door when she left, so there were people that were watching her."

Kelly Farris, Sladewski's sister, said she agrees and wants North Miami Police to focus on the men.

"These bouncers, if they weren't involved, they do know who this person is," Farris said.

Three sources briefed on the investigation have confirmed to ABC News that police are currently searching for a person of interest who was seen on surveillance cameras outside of the club walking away with Sladewski, although they only have a vague description of the person as a black male.

North Miami Police did not immediately return phone calls to ABC News today.

Sladewski and her boyfriend Kevin Klym were in Miami for a weekend of partying to celebrate New Year's.

The couple divided their time between California and Michigan.

Sladewski's sister said the couple's relationship was "unhealthy when they drank, but when they weren't drinking they got along great."

Sladewski and Klym were together in the early morning hours of Sunday, Jan. 3 partying at Club Space. According to police, the couple got into a drunken argument and bouncers asked Klym to leave.

"He requested the bouncers communicate with her to say that he was waiting outside and the bouncers said they did that. They came out and said she didn't want to leave, she wanted to stay," Klym's lawyer Marc Beginin told ABC News last week.

Klym then took a taxi back to their hotel, police said, and Sladewski is seen on tape leaving the club approximately 20 minutes later.

Sladewski's body was discovered later that night, 90 blocks away, smoldering in a dumpster behind a propane store. Due to the extensive burns to her body, Sladewski was not positively identified until nearly two days later when her dental records were provided by her family.

The model's boyfriend was initially under intense scrutiny in news reports and was named a person of interest by North Miami Police. Klym's lawyer now says his client has an alibi that has been verified by the police and Sladewski's sister believes he's innocent.

"They need to get the focus off of Kevin because he didn't do this," Farris said.

Before the release of the surveillance video, police had said they believed Klym was one of the last people to see Sladewski alive.

The release of the tape has centered scrutiny back at the club, the bouncers, and anyone on the street who may have seen Sladewski as she left.

Farris said she is frustrated by the police investigation and wants authorities to focus more on the men seen walking behind Sladewski on the surveillance video.

"I don't understand why they are not interrogating these people from the club," she said. "Somebody would break under interrogation."

"I would try to develop as much information from that club as I could," private investigator Wasser said.

"Who was out there that night? Who was on the street?" he said. "Those bouncers know, they've got to be interviewed in depth and there's the public -- there's people coming and going, it's active.

"She was wearing a skimpy clad outfit that was very colorful. Here's a long blond-haired woman that's dressed to kill that everybody would see, they would notice her," he said.

Club Space management did not return phone calls from ABC News.

Farris, who was briefed by police on the investigation today, said she was told the nightclub's employees "were not being cooperative" with the police investigation.

Murdered Playboy Model's Sister Says 'She Loved Life'

Sladewski's family is desperate for any potential witnesses to come forward.

"We just want to plead and beg, please please please, there's people who know more than what they are saying," Farris said. "Please come forward. Paula didn't deserve any of this.

"She loved life and just made the mistake of trusting the wrong person," she said.

Sladewski was cremated in Florida and her family flew her remains back to Grand City, Mich. where a memorial is scheduled for Saturday at her mother's church.

"This is the craziest thing. I don't know how I'm ever going to get through this. I don't know how any of us will be able to move on until they find somebody," her sister told ABC News.

"I know that I will see her again one day in heaven but right now this person needs to be caught," she said. "He's dangerous. We don't want this to happen to somebody else's family."