Co-workers remember "Atlanta," the teenage dancer found dead inside her Mira Mesa apartment Tuesday morning.
San Diego police found the body of woman, identified Wednesday as 19-year old Kalyn Denise O'barr-Poteat shortly in the one-bedroom, second-story apartment on Hillery Drive.
Her 21-year old husband, Lance Cpl. Patrick Poteat, a Marine based at MCAS Miramar now sits in the county jail, accused in her death.
Kalyn was a dancer at Goldfingers Gentlemen's Club on Miramar road. Her stage name was "Atlanta", a tribute to her roots in Georgia.
General Manager Mel Nasirpour said, "She was just the nicest, sweetest girl you could ever imagine. I mean bubbly personality, nice to everybody and well loved." He added, "I think I am still in shock. It's so unbelievable to happen to someone who was so beautiful and full of life like that."
Nasirpour said he wasn't aware of any problems between the couple. He last saw Kalyn a week ago. 'She was in great spirits last time I saw her. Never mentioned anything."
Kalyn's body did not show obvious signs of trauma, according to San Diego homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney.
"The cause of the woman's death is not clear at this point," Rooney said. "However, there was a number of things in the apartment that suggested it was a murder, as opposed to a natural death.”
A small memorial has been placed outside the apartment of the couple, who moved to San Diego from Georgia. The couple had only been married for a few months.
Local
Dorothy Alevras, one of the couple's neighbors, said she overheard them arguing over the weekend.
"My husband went outside to see if someone needed help or if a kid was getting hurt," Alevras said. "It was him, I guess, beating her up or hurting her, and she was running away.”
"We saw them all the time here and there passing and stuff, but it's scary," neighbor Dorothy Alevras said.
Poteat was arrested just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, who stopped him as he was driving in Yucca Valley. Investigators said they first became award of the situation when a man called 911 to say that Patrick Poteat called him, asking him to call 911 and have police check his apartment.
A spokesperson from MCAS Miramar said Poteat, 21, has been stationed there since July 2009 and had not been deployed and had no previous duty stations.
