Lancaster Motel Guest Fatally Stabbed

LANCASTER —  A man was found stabbed to death in a motel room here Wednesday, and the Sheriff’s Department is seeking the public’s help in finding whoever killed him.

Sheriff’s deputies, responding to an emergency call, found the body of Field Simes, 41, in a room at the Tropic Motel on Sierra Highway around 12:50 a.m., according to Deputy Steve Sciacca of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Simes died from multiple stab wounds, Sciacca said.

Motel owner Raghbir Walia said Simes checked into a room for two people around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Around 12:30 a.m., he said, the motel’s manager responded to a complaint from a resident about a loud commotion coming from Simes’ room.

According to Walia, when the manager stopped by the room, another man answered the door and assured the manager the two would be quiet. Walia said the manager returned to the room a few minutes later and, through a window, saw Simes’ body on the floor. The other man had fled and authorities now consider him a suspect.

Sciacca added that deputies believe the killer left the motel in Simes’ car, which was missing from the motel parking lot. The car is described as a metallic-tan 1987 BMW 320, California license FTERRYS.

Anyone with information on the person responsible for Simes’ slaying, or the whereabouts of his car, is asked to call the sheriff’s Homicide Division at (323) 890-5500.