Slain Woman Sought Help Against Husband

A Moorpark woman who investigators suspect was strangled by her husband on Sunday had sought court protection from him in 1990, saying she feared that he would kill her, according to court records.

The body of JoAnn Linkenauger, 39, was found face down in mud next to her car along a rural road in Somis on Monday. A deputy county coroner said the cause of death was strangulation, and a sheriff’s investigator said the woman also showed signs of being beaten.

James Michael Linkenauger, 38, was arrested early Tuesday, after deputies summoned him to the Ventura County sheriff’s headquarters in Ventura for questioning. He was being held in Ventura County Jail on suspicion of murder with bail set at $250,000, pending an appearance tentatively scheduled for today in Ventura County Municipal Court.

“At this point, all we can say is that during the course of the investigation there were some indications that led us to the husband as the prime suspect,” Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Kemp said.

The death was the first suspected murder in Ventura County this year, Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate said. The first homicide occurred Jan. 7, when an off-duty sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a suspected robber outside an Oxnard fast-food restaurant.

While seeking a restraining order against her husband 2 1/2 years ago in Ventura County Superior Court, JoAnn Linkenauger said he had beaten her severely. “He is in jail now, may be released tomorrow, and when he gets out I’m afraid he will try to kill me,” she wrote in a sworn statement supporting the request.

But three days later, according to records, she dropped both the restraining order request and spousal abuse charges that she had brought against her husband, and the two apparently began living together again. Since the matter was dropped, the court file does not contain a response from James Linkenauger to his wife’s allegations.

The physical abuse started less than one month after the two were married in April, 1990, according to the statement that JoAnn Linkenauger filed in court.

On May 27, 1990, she wrote, her husband had come home drunk and “dragged me around the apartment by my hair, hitting my head on the floor, walls, etc. . . . He finally threw me on the floor and pressed his knee to my throat so I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t talk or scream. He let me up and I left the apartment until he calmed down.”

On June 9, 1990, according to the wife’s statement, James Linkenauger allegedly hit her head on the floor and “asked me how I wanted my face torn off.” Two days later, JoAnn Linkenauger filed the criminal charge and the request for court protection, which she dropped three days afterward.

JoAnn Linkenauger was manager of the commissary at Culver Studios for the last three years, said Bob Sirchia, vice president of the television and motion picture studio in Culver City. She had two daughters, according to court records, which identified them as Erica and Stephanie Javins.

Kemp said she believed that James Linkenauger is unemployed. In 1990, he worked at a muffler shop in Simi Valley, according to court records.

In 1990, the couple lived on Geneive Street in Camarillo, according to court papers. At the time of the slaying, the couple were renting a two-bedroom, 700-square-foot house on Flory Avenue in Moorpark. On Tuesday, the doors and windows of the house were sealed with Sheriff’s Department stickers.

The department is trying to locate anyone who saw JoAnn Linkenauger’s late-model red Mitsubishi Mirage parked on Donlon Road near La Cumbre Road, where her body was found. Investigators suspect that her husband got a ride back to Moorpark from Somis along California 118 on Sunday evening, Kemp said, and they want to talk to anyone who saw or gave a ride to a hitchhiker.

Calls should be directed to Sgt. Kelly Fadler at 654-2344.

Times correspondent James Maiella Jr. contributed to this story.