Top actress Choi Jin-sil was found dead Thursday morning in her home in what appears to be a suicide. She was found in a shower booth with pressure band wrapped around her neck.

Police says that her body was discovered by her family member at 6:15 and police arrived at the scene around 7:30. No suicide note was found. The details and circumstances of her death are still being investigated.

Choi has been under enormous pressure lately from rumors implicating her in the suicide death of TV actor Ahn Jae-hwan, husband of Choi’s close friend, comedienne Jung Sun-hee. Internet postings accused Choi of lending about 2 million dollars to Ahn, indirectly driving him to his death. Police arrested a 25-year-old securities firm employee in late September for initiating the false rumor in cyber space.

Choi debuted in 1988 on a TV historical drama and since then has played numerous leading roles in both TV and films. She rose to stardom in the romantic TV drama “Jealousy” in 1992, and starred in such hits as “You and Me,” “Bad Woman, Good Woman,” “Rose and Bean Sprouts,” and “My Rosy Life.” Her latest starring role was in “The Last Scandal of My Life” the spring of 2008, which put her back in the limelight as the most bankable middle-aged star.

While enjoying professional success, her personal life, on the other hand, has been full of ups and downs. She married then baseball star Cho Sung-min in December 2000, but divorced him five years later. They have two children, whose last name was changed from “Cho” to their maternal sir name “Choi” this year. Well-known for her fierce loyalty and strong friendship with a small group of celebrities, which include comediennes Jung Sun-hee and Lee Young-ja and models Lee So-ra and Hong Jin-kyung among others, she was apparently devastated by the death of Ahn and the ensuing rumors. The general public suspects that the stress from the recent string of events pushed her over the edge and prompted her to take her own life. Her body is currently at rest in Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul.