Police in an exclusive California beach resort are scratching their heads over the case of a dead blonde woman whose body was found preserved on a bed of dry ice in a large Rubbermaid container.

The body of Monique Trepp, a 33-year-old "aspiring model", was found during a drugs bust in a hotel suite in Newport Beach. Police say that she had been dead "a while", but have not said how long.

Her boyfriend Stephen David Royds, 46, a convicted drug dealer from New Zealand, is being held on $1 million bail on felony drug charges and a warrant from a 2002 conviction for selling cocaine. Prosecutors have not said whether he will be charged with any offence relating to keeping her body or not reporting her death.

Royds's only comment has been a cryptic statement made from jail that “everything that happened was for religious reasons".

An autopsy found no signs of murder and Orange County police say that Trepp probably overdosed on drugs.

The case has baffled many who knew the couple. Arturo Flores, general manager of Tapas, a restaurant that they frequented, said that the pair acted stranged at times but were polite and engaging.

He said that a driver would chauffeur them just a few hundred yards from the Fairmont Hotel - where they stayed - across the street to the restaurant, where they drank liberally, paid cash and tipped waiters with lottery tickets.

“We saw these people on a daily basis. Just because you see they are weird doesn’t mean they’re bad people,” Mr Flores said. “It’s just nuts.”

Police had been tailing Royds for some time when they arrested him late last week. An informant said he was selling cocaine on the beach.

In his executive suite, Room 966, Trepp’s well-preserved body was stuffed into the giant storage container. The suite, which has marble floors, a powder room, and a private balcony, costs up to $400 per night, although the hotel said that he had negotiated a discounted rate because of his extended stay.

Apart from the room, Trepp also rented an apartment nearby, although Mike Smith, the property manager, said that her rent cheques would bounce regularly and she was working as a stripper at a club called J's.

“She was real cute, a blue-eyed blonde, a typical beach girl,” Mr Smith said. “Whenever I talked to her, she was always going to get a better job and she was going to go back to school. She was always kind of running between the raindrops.”

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?