Police: Berkeley murder victim was found in suitcase
Police say Demarcus Jones "admitting to the killing" — and said he'd taken steps to hide what he'd done.
Authorities have charged Demarcus Jones with the murder of a Berkeley woman, triggering the release of grisly new details Thursday in court papers.
Police have identified Jones as the woman's boyfriend. A close friend of hers told The Scanner this week that their relationship did not rise to that level.
The name of the woman who was killed has not been released and appears only as Jane Doe in court papers. She was 37 years old.
On Saturday, police found her body unclothed inside a black fabric roller suitcase wrapped in multiple plastic bags, they wrote in charging papers.
The woman's property manager initially found her body after family and friends became concerned when they could not reach her.
The woman was seen with Jones on surveillance footage going into her apartment, at California Street and University Avenue, on Sunday, May 24, at about 2:20 p.m., according to police. No one saw her alive again.
Footage captured Jones going back into the apartment complex two days later, May 26, at 9 a.m., police wrote.
According to police, Jones had with him "the black fabric roller suitcase that the victim's body was later located inside of."
An autopsy this week found multiple injuries on the woman's body, including head injuries "potentially caused by blunt force trauma" and neck injuries, among other signs of trauma, police wrote.
During the investigation, detectives secured an arrest warrant for Jones and used his cellphone to find him, according to charging papers.
Phone records put him in the area of the crime scene from May 24-27, according to police.
According to charging papers, Jones has his own apartment in South Berkeley.
BPD arrested him in Dixon on Tuesday.
Damarcus Jones. BPD
According to police, Jones "admitting to the killing of the victim and stuffing her body into the bags and into the black fabric suitcase" —after being advised of his right to remain silent.
He said he had opened her apartment windows "and left an air purifier on because he knew that the victim's deceased body would eventually begin to smell," police wrote.
On Thursday, the Alameda County district attorney's office charged Jones, 28, with murder.
In November, Jones was convicted of felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and placed on probation as a result, according to court papers.
He is now being held without bail. His next court date was not listed as of publication time.
