Advertisement Person in custody in Popeye's restaurant killing Woman found dead inside Brooklyn Park business Sunday Share Shares Copy Link Copy

An arrest has been made in connection with the death of a long-time employee inside a Popeye's restaurant in Brooklyn Park.The woman's body was discovered Sunday morning at the restaurant in the 5300 block of Ritchie Highway.Mobile users tap here for the latest videoOfficials said the store's manager found Luzviminda Monreal, 47, of Laurel, beaten to death in a back stock room around 8 a.m."When officers arrived, they met with the manager, who went inside the business and found one of the employees deceased from significant upper body trauma," Anne Arundel County police spokesman Lt. T.J. Smith said.Monreal worked the night shift. It's unclear if she was working alone Saturday.Police said they would hold a news conference about the arrest at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Officials didn't release any more information about the arrest, which they announced late Monday evening, but sources told 11 News that the person in custody knew the victim.The restaurant dining room closed at 11 p.m. According to business neighbors, the killing may have happened sometime after 1 a.m."Somehow they were there for like, cleaning or something, so our people left around 1:15 a.m., and they didn't notice anything," business owner Choudhry Youmis said.Friends called the victim Mena. They said she was friendly, playful and had worked at Popeye's for at least 20 years. They said she grew tomato plants in front of the restaurant."She's not a troublemaker or nothing. She works hard. I don't know why someone would do something like that," friend Brennan Jones said."There's a family grieving because of a murderer. We believe we're going to track down that murderer, and we want the public to help us if they know anything or saw anything in the overnight hours here in Brooklyn Park," Smith said.The restaurant has several surveillance cameras that police said they will review to see if the killer may have been caught in the act. Police have not determined whether the killing was a robbery or if the victim was targeted."What we want is people who might have seen anything to come forward and tell us what they saw because it could be that little piece of information that helps us track down the suspect in this," Smith said.Customers were turned away from the business all day Monday. A sign posted on the building didn't explain why. It just redirected people to another location.Stay with WBALTV.com and 11 News for more details as they become available.10047516