Body of Woman Found at Home

Sheriff’s deputies, summoned by worried neighbors, found the body of a woman in the bedroom of her San Clemente apartment Saturday morning and are looking for a man she reportedly met on the Internet.

Deputies identified the woman as Cheryl Joyner. Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Doan said there were no signs of violence on the body. An autopsy will be conducted today or Monday, he said.

It was unclear when Joyner died, Doan said. Saturday would have been her 43rd birthday.

Investigators want to contact Joyner’s boyfriend, who a neighbor said moved to San Clemente from Missouri after the two met on the Internet.

Five days before her body was found, Joyner called sheriff’s deputies to report that the boyfriend had stolen her car, Doan said. But because she had given the man permission to use the car, deputies did not report the car stolen, and the man returned it later that night, Doan said.

“Homicide investigators definitely will follow up with him,” Doan said. “They will seek to talk to anybody she talked to over the last few days.”

Joyner recently took an office job in Foothill Ranch, said neighbor Tana Scalese, who described the victim as a friendly person who enjoyed arts and crafts, including needlepoint.

Doan said investigators were trying to determine how Joyner and her boyfriend met. Scalese said Joyner told her the couple met on the Internet and had been living together.

“We’ve heard these rumors,” Doan said. “We’re trying to confirm that.”

Joyner’s apartment building sits at the foot of Avenida Ramona, below a bluff with expensive, ocean-view homes.Sheriff’s officials would not say who called asking that they check on the woman.

Scalese said she was saddened to learn of her neighbor’s death.

“I wish I could have heard something, done something. But it wasn’t possible,” Scalese said.