Influencer Alexis Sharkey's cause of death confirmed by autopsy

An American social media influencer who went missing before her body was found had been strangled, according to reports.

Alexis Sharkey, from Houston, was found dead on the side of a road in November.

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The Houston Chronicle reports her death has now been ruled a homicide by police, who say she was strangled.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the death a homicide, but it did not release a full autopsy report, according to the NY Daily News.

Sharkey had left her home on November 29 - the weekend after America's Thanksgiving - after having an argument with her husband, according to reports.

Her desperate mother pleaded for help when she didn't return. She announced on Facebook her daughter's body had been found on November 30.

According to reports, it was discovered, naked, by a garbage worker on the roadside.

"It's with deeply broken hearts that Mike and I want to let you all know that Lexi's body has been found," Stacy Robinault wrote.

"We will miss you, love."

In a TV interview she said she thought her daughter had been murdered.

"I do believe she was murdered. There is nothing to me that suggests that this was an accident, and there's nothing to me that suggests anything else, other than that this was done to her," she told KPRC.

Friends told media Sharkey had been "scared for her life" before she went missing.

"She's petrified," one told ABC13.

After she was found dead, her husband Tom Starkey told the same TV station she was "stressed" but said they had a happy marriage and called her an "amazing woman."

He claimed he'd received death threats since her disappearance and death.

The Houston Police Department told the Daily News no arrests or charges had been filed and an investigation was ongoing.

Sharkey said she was a 'mentor' on Instagram, where she had more than 70,000 followers.