VENTURA : Ex-Resident Found Slain on Guam

A 21-year-old petty officer, a former Ventura resident and graduate of Ventura High School, was found slain near the U. S. Navy installation on the island of Guam, authorities said Wednesday.

Civilian police on the small South Pacific island discovered the body of Petty Officer 3rd Class Janice D. Deken during the early morning hours of Oct. 28 near an ice-making plant a short distance from the base, said Lt. Kelly Merrell, a Navy spokeswoman.

Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted, beaten to death and robbed.

Merrell said Naval Investigative Service agents arrested Navy Fireman Johnathan L. Spence, 21, aboard the USS Holland, a nuclear attack submarine tender based at the island, on suspicion of violating murder, rape and robbery sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Deken joined the Navy shortly after her graduation from Ventura High in 1991. She was assigned to the Holland this summer as a submarine communications electronics technician.

“Before she joined the Navy, Janice was so shy,” said Deken’s mother, Sally Johnson. “But after she was in, she seemed to really start coming out of her shell. She was doing great. She was someone who America could be proud of.”

Johnson said Navy officials on the island told her that her daughter was with friends at an enlisted persons club before the attack.

Johnson said her daughter was a member of the high school marching band, was interested in agriculture and loved horses.

“She always went with groups and was considered everyone’s little sister,” Johnson said. “Beyond being shipmates, she barely knew Spence.”

Funeral services for Deken will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at the Charles Carroll Funeral Home in Ventura.