Woman Bludgeoned to Death Saturday at Lake Merritt Was Young Mother, Texas Transplant

A woman found murdered near Oakland's Lake Merritt on Saturday morning was identified today by police as a 23-year-old mother who had recently moved to Oakland from Dallas.

Kimberly Robertson was found beaten to death at 6:40 a.m. Saturday in the 1900 block of Third Avenue outside of the park at the Francis Marion Smith Recreation Center, police said.

Emergency responders tried to save her life but she was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Dozens of friends have posted messages on Robertson's Facebook page since Saturday, with many expressing disbelief at the sudden news of her death.

"It's hard to smile knowing you're gone," one friend wrote. "But my heart is smiling inside cause I know you're in a far better place than this cold world!"

Robertson grew up in Dallas and attended Kimball High School there. She graduated from ITT Technical Institute in DeSoto, Texas, in September 2013 and moved to Oakland shortly afterward.

She had started a criminal justice program at Heald College in San Francisco just weeks before her murder and has a daughter who will celebrate her third birthday in May.

Police have released no suspect information and made no arrests in the killing.

Anybody with information has been asked to call the Oakland Police Department's homicide investigators at (510) 238-3821.

-- Bay City News