Deputies arrested a man on suspicion of murder after a woman was found dead in a Santee motel earlier this week.
Mark Michael Everitt, 52, was taken into custody in La Mesa Friday at about 3:30 p.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. He will be booked into jail for murder in the death of Julie Ann Marie Ulm.
Ulm's body was found in the Rodeway Inn on Mission Gorge Road at noon on Monday. A citizen had flagged down a deputy to say a person was down in a room.
The medical examiner has not released Ulm's cause of death, and sheriff's officials have not detailed what led them to accuse Everitt in her killing.
Ulm would often stay at the Rodeway Inn when she needed time alone, Sheila Kelly Paradise -- who knew the victim for 36 years -- told NBC 7 on Friday.
Before her murder, Ulm had stayed at the motel for three days, the friend said. On the fourth, she called Paradise to ask if she could stay with her. Paradise declined, explaining she had just suffered a bad fall and couldn't host her.
That was the last Paradise heard from Ulm.
“Then I saw on TV… 55-year-old woman murdered at Rodeway Inn," said Paradise, "and I went, ‘Oh my God, that’s Julie.’ And it just clicked."
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She could not imagine why anyone would want to kill Ulm, describing the victim as someone who would give you the shirt off her back.
Paradise and Ulm lived in the same El Cajon apartment complex for years.
“She was the most outgoing, funny, giving person you ever hoped to meet," said Paradise. "She could find humor in the darndest places. She had what I called black humor.”
For a time, Ulm's daughter lived with her in El Cajon, but she had since moved out. Alice Ulm, a family member in New York, told NBC 7 that Ulm's daughter and the rest of the family had been keeping their distance from her because of recent "lifestyle choices."
Ulm's in-laws were actors James Whitmore -- known for his turn in "Shawshank Redemption" -- and Audra Lindley of "Three's Company" fame, according to Paradise.
After her husband's death, Ulm started cleaning homes and businesses under Paradise's suggestion -- an endeavor she continued for 15 years.
