North Jersey woman eyed in tail of woe

The day after a British tourist died from a botched buttocks enhancement done at an airport hotel, authorities searched a New Jersey woman's home as evidence mounted that such illegal injections are big black-market business in Philadelphia.

Police believe that the Bergen County woman, whom they did not identify but was described as a person of interest, was present for the procedure but didn't inject Claudia Seye Aderotimi, 20, with whatever led to her death on Tuesday, said Lt. John Walker, of Southwest Detectives.

The New Jersey woman's phone records, e-mails and other computer files were seized from her home. Police are still trying to identify and locate the injector, who fled the hotel when Aderotimi fell ill.

Aderotimi had flown to Philadelphia Saturday with three friends for the procedure; Aderotimi and one of the friends got injections in a room at the Hampton Inn on Bartram Avenue. Aderotimi died early Tuesday at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, where paramedics took her after friends reported that she had chest pains and breathing trouble.

The friends told investigators they believed that the injections were silicone. Unlicensed injectors implicated in deaths elsewhere have used cheaper industrial silicone rather than medical-grade silicone.

The Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office will determine what she was injected with, most likely through toxicology tests. Results could take weeks.

More than a dozen friends and family members gathered yesterday at Aderotimi's family home in Hackney, East London, to mourn her loss, according to British press reports. Her sister, Vivian, cried as she spoke briefly with British reporters: "We found out yesterday. We're still in shock. We need to think about what we have to do. I really don't want to say anything at the moment."

Aderotimi would have been 21 in two weeks, her sister said.

As police scrambled to identify her killer, Walker said yesterday that they are now investigating Philadelphia's underground butt-boosters.

"It's dangerous, not only for the fact that you can have great medical issues, but also the possibility of infection because of lack of sterilization," Walker said.

Nevertheless, women with usernames like "bootylicious" and "fourtyandbeautiful" pose online as happy clients and brag about their "bubble butts" and "teardrop booties." Instead, many are recruiters. They demand "referral fees" to introduce potential patients to shadowy unnamed injectors who promise bargain prices. One provider even vows her injections will "give you more energy and increase your sex drive without drugs or caffeine."

The procedure is popular among models and adult entertainers. In recent years, big booties have become an object of mainstream fascination, with the popularity of big-bottomed starlets like Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian.

Stacey Short, a hometown porn actress known as "Diaballickall," said she reached out to such online offers on YouTube and Google Topix threads last year because "the bigger your butt, the more money you make [in adult movies], so ultimately, this was a career choice for me."

But when a woman demanded $150 to introduce her to an unnamed injector and refused to allow Short to talk with him before the procedure, Short decided to look elsewhere.

"It just seemed fishy," said Short, 30, who lives in Center City.

So instead of paying the underground injector $1,000, a board-certified plastic surgeon will enhance her buttocks, using fat transplanted from her abdomen, in an outpatient surgery center in March. His fee: $10,000.

Aderotimi's death "was a rude awakening," Short said. "You can lose your life doing this. So then you got to ask yourself: Is it really worth it?"