BERKELEY, Calif. -- The family of a murdered 23-year-old Oakland woman believes that the suspect in her homicide held the woman’s missing child hostage and used the infant to lure her into his van for a fatal ride.

Odessa Tucker, the cousin of Zoelina Williams, said the suspect in her murder -- Curtis Martin III – was known in the neighborhood as a man prone to domestic violence.

“She (Martin’s former girlfriend how lived in the neighborhood) had to move away because he would beat her,” Tucker said. “That’s why we could not understand why Zoelina would be with him… He was constantly beating that girl next door.”

Tucker said the family believed that Martin took Williams’ 17-month-old son Jashon days prior to her murder. They also believe Martin killed the infant and that a body found floating off the Berkeley shoreline Sunday was the child.

Authorities have yet to announce the results of an autopsy undertaken to identify the body.

Tucker said the family noticed the child’s absence days before the murder.

“Everyone was asking – ‘Where’s the baby?’ And she was saying she was going to get the baby,” Tucker said. “Her friend came around on Saturday and said that man (Martin) has her baby…(Zoelina was saying) I’m going to call the police on you if you don’t give me my baby”

Tucker said Martin used the baby as a lure.

“He must have called her and said come out, I have your baby,” Tucker speculated about the moments leading up to the fatal ride. “That’s when she got into the van with him and we haven’t seen her since,”

While the family anxiously awaited word, the coroner still hasn't been able to determine the identity of the child's body found near the Berkeley Marina on Sunday, Berkeley police Lt. Andrew Greenwood said Monday.

Authorities are trying to determine if the child is 17-month-old Jashon Williams, the missing son of Zoelina Williams, whose body was found about a mile away in Aquatic Park, along the shoreline east of Interstate Highway 80 in Berkeley, about 4 a.m. Friday.

According to Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason, Jashon was last known to be with Williams and it is believed that he was with her at the time she was murdered.

"It's been very hard for us,” said Zoelina's cousin Georgetta Lovett. “It's been very painful. Our family is just in a place where we're glad we have some closure. Where the body was found wasn't too far from where the mother was. We're pretty sure that it's the baby."

Martin, a 38-year-old Oakland man, has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with Williams' death and was scheduled to make a court appearance Tuesday.

Investigators said Martin was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a three-year-old child in 1994. He served a little over half of his 11 year sentence and then was released.

To a person, Zoelina's relatives said they didn't know she was dating Martin. They're puzzled why she would develop a relationship with a man they say abused his last girlfriend.

For now, they fear their questions are unlikely to receive answers.

"I'm real curious to know what could have possibly could have been on his mind?” asked Lovett. “What was the motive? What would make him want to kill the baby and the mom?”