Police Identify Body Found Behind Motel

Authorities released the name of a woman whose nude and beaten body was found behind an Oxnard motel room Saturday.

Janet Christina Williams, 20, of Oxnard, was bludgeoned and then strangled with a string or cord before her body was shoved out of the ground floor window of a room at the Ros-eda Motel.

The motel’s owner discovered the body in the alleyway and called police about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.

The room was registered to Salvador Sumaran, an Oxnard gang member with a lengthy criminal record for theft, vandalism and drug use, according to authorities.

Sumaran was arrested Monday in connection with the slaying, though he has not yet been charged. He is in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail for violating parole.

Police are trying to piece together what prompted the beating and strangulation. “That’s the question of the day--the motive,” said Oxnard Police Sgt. Lee Wilcox.

The family is also anxious to know why someone would kill the young mother of a 3-year-old boy.

“I just don’t understand why anyone would want to do this to her,” said Williams’ sister, Akeme “Kimmie” Williams. “She was just loved by everyone who knew her. My heart is broken. She was my little sister and my best friend and now she’s gone.”

Williams said she did not think her sister and Sumaran were acquainted and can’t understand why they were in a motel room together.

Family members said they last saw Janet Williams on Friday night as she left the Oxnard home she shares with her mother, grandmother and sister. Williams said she was going to a party with friends and would be home by 9 p.m.

Police said that Williams, in an unrelated incident, reported to authorities a week before her death that she was the victim of a beating.

Police arrested Williams’ boyfriend, Jacob Anthony Silerio, 25, of Oxnard on Sept. 7 on suspicion of assault with a firearm and battery on a person with injuries. He remained in jail Wednesday night in lieu of $250,000 bail.