LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES: A New Zealand-born drug dealer kept the body of his former stripper girlfriend frozen in a plastic bin in his California hotel room for up to a year, it was reported on Tuesday (September 30th).

Stephen Royds, who was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting drugs offences at a hearing in Newport Beach south of Los Angeles on Monday (September 29th), was not a suspect in Monique Trepp's death, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Trepp's body was discovered by police executing a search warrant at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel as they investigated Royds, 47, in March this year on suspicion of dealing cocaine.

Investigators said Trepp's body, which had been preserved in dry ice, was "moderately decomposed." An autopsy report showed the 33-year-old had died from an overdose of cocaine and alcohol.

There were no signs of defensive injuries and she may have been dead for as long as a year. Royds was not a suspect in her death but had never divulged why he kept her body preserved in a 2-by-3-foot plastic bin.

In a previous interview with the Orange County Register he said his girlfriend had been preserved for "religious reasons."

Prosecutor Jeff Levy was quoted by the Times as saying Royds may have felt "stuck between a rock and a hard place" if he reported his girlfriend's death because a warrant was out for his arrest.

Royds, who pleaded guilty to felony counts of transportation of cocaine and possession of cocaine for sale, moved to the United States around 20 years ago to pursue a professional skiing career, the Times cited authorities as saying.