LAMONT, Calif. -- As police continue to investigate a homicide at a south Bakersfield motel that took place last weekend, those closest to the victim gathered to remember a man they called dedicated and hard-working.

Isaias "Chay" Montes Quiroz, 46, was found dead around 6 p.m. Sunday in a shower at a motel room at the Budget Inn on Union Avenue south of Panama Lane.

Related

Owner Of Restaurant Found Dead In Motel

"I don't know why he would have been at the motel," Salvador Hernandez, who worked for Montes, said. "He was a reserved man who mostly kept his personal life to himself."

There were obvious signs of trauma on Montes's body, and his death was ruled a homicide, but it will take weeks for the coroner's office to determine the cause of death.

Montes, who was laid to rest Friday, was the owner of Nuevo Amanecer (or New Dawn) Mexican Restaurant on Main Street in Lamont. The restaurant was closed the day after he died, as well as Thursday and Friday.

"He was a responsible man who was beloved in our community," Enare Petadan, his niece, said. "He would always come by my house and tell me that no matter what I needed, he would always be there for me."

According to workers at Nuevo Amanecer, Montes left the restaurant at 3 p.m. Sunday, telling them he had to run an errand and that he would be right back.

Graciela Pacheco says she talked to him on the phone a half-hour later, but that was the last anyone heard from him.

"We kept calling him and calling him and got no answer, and that's when I got worried," she said. "We waited for him until after we closed the restaurant at 8 that night. Then I went home and that's when I found out he died."

Montes's car, a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser, was found the next day in a field near DiGiorgio Road and May Street in Lamont, less than a mile away from the restaurant.

The BPD is asking for anyone who knew Montes to contact them at 327-7111.

"If anyone saw what happened, they have to tell someone. They can't leave this unsolved," Pacheco said. "The man they killed wasn't an animal; he was a person, and a good one at that."