Shauna Haynes, 21 ( / Facebook)

A 33-year-old man was arrested Friday in the death of a woman whose body was found crammed into a suitcase behind a downtown hotel Wednesday, police said.

Joshua Palmer was booked into jail on a count of murder after he was interviewed by homicide detectives Friday afternoon. Police did not say what led them to Palmer.

The 21-year-old victim was identified by police as Shauna Haynes of San Diego.


Haynes’ Facebook page showed her and Palmer together in photo posted on March 6.

Palmer is from Orange County and lives in San Diego, according to his Facebook page.

Authorities have not determined how Haynes died, how long she has been dead or when the suitcase was placed in the trash can behind the Chadwick Hotel on A Street at Seventh Avenue.

The Medical Examiner’s Office said she was fatally injured within the past week.


Two men who live at the hotel called police about 11 a.m. Wednesday to report some suspicious circumstances. One resident said he had pushed a black trash can from the curb to a parking lot behind the hotel and noticed it felt heavy, homicide Lt. Ray Valentin said.

The second man told police he found the mid-sized black luggage on the ground near several trash cans in the lot. He could see black hair sticking out through the suitcase zipper, and did not look any closer, Valentin said.

The first officer who went out to investigate opened the suitcase’s zipper partway and confirmed the young woman’s body was inside, Valentin said.

He said homicide detectives didn’t know who pulled out the luggage from the trash can.


david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Staff writer Pauline Repard contributed to this report.