UPDATE: Police in Palo Alto are investigating the death as a “likely” homicide, according to a police department press release sent out Friday afternoon. To read the updated story, click here
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Palo Alto police are investigating a suspicious death at a residence in the Greenmeadow neighborhood after a family member discovered the deceased person in the home Thursday night, according to police.
The department’s dispatch center received a call from the family member reporting the death at about 7:42 p.m. Officers responded to the residence in the 300 block of Creekside Drive and found the adult victim, police spokesman Lt. Zach Perron said.
The family member had gone to the home to locate the person, police said. No one else was in the home and there are no suspects. Police did not evacuate any nearby homes and did not put the neighborhood on lockdown, Perron said.
Investigators are not releasing any information regarding the age or gender of the person at this time.
Initial evidence at the scene, police said, indicated that the death was suspicious in nature. Police do not know if the death was a suicide or a homicide and are awaiting the Santa Clara County Coroner, Perron said.
Detectives will be seeking a search warrant to conduct a full search of the residence.
The police department tweeted around 9 p.m. Thursday that the “crime scene” was secure.
A portion of Creekside Drive is expected to remain closed through Friday afternoon, while police investigate.
On Friday morning, some neighbors said they did not know the people who lived there. The residents were quiet, they said.
One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said there were a number of people who came and went to the home. She and her brother were walking the dog as police arrived and observed them stop to talk to someone in a white pickup truck parked on the street. Officers then cordoned off the residence and the street with crime scene tape and asked her to move out of the secured zone, she said.
“It seems a little strange that no one knows them, but because there are a lot of older people, it’s not uncommon,” she said. “There are quite a few houses with older people who stay to themselves, and they are not really part of the community.”
Another resident, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, said there has also been much turnover as elder residents cash out on their homes in the hot real estate market. And many new residents are immigrants.
“There are a lot of new people. Almost everybody I ever knew has sold,” she said.
Although Adobe Creek runs behind the home, the longtime resident said the homes are not particularly targeted for burglaries. The creek banks are probably too steep, she said.
Another longtime resident said the neighborhood has an occasional burglary, but it is a safe and quiet place.
A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier said that he had been delivering mail to an Asian man at the home and that other residents had moved out, but he declined to say when the residents had departed.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the police department at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.
Why is additional information on either the victim or the suspect not available?
No active search for suspects means this was a likely a suicide and the news media generally does not give out details of private suicides, so as not to encourage copy cats.
This street is closed off. Police are asking for anyone with information to contact them.
I suspect this was not a suicide. I suspect that the reason we have no more information is because it might interfere with their enquiries.
I suspect that we should refrain from “suspecting” and move our focus and energies to positive activities. Information will become available in due time. Not everything is hush-hush, wink-wink, cover-up.
I’m confused. If they didn’t conduct an active search in the neighborhood, why were there so many police cars driving very, very fast over a period of a half hour or so (including multiple patrol cars from Mountain View)? The sirens continued for at least that long, and they sometimes drove into the neighborhood from Alma without lights or sirens, only to reach a blocked off area within several blocks. Why was that necessary, especially given the curved nature of the streets, blind corners, and people walking their dogs, etc. I so appreciate our police department, but if they weren’t doing a search or chase, the speed with which they were driving, including around blind corners, was dangerous for anyone stepping into the street.
I think this case being such recent and active case police department doesn’t want to reveal a lot of details. It’s too early and if it is homicide they do not want suspect(s) to read these posts or police updates and have upper hand.
Remember in the rape case on El Camino real right in front of Stanford university, a woman in a Black Mercedes Van, the sandals were left on the road, Police didn’t divulge more than 30% info to the public and they were able to crack the case and arrest the rapist within few days.
In this information age its good to let he police department do their work at least in the initial stage. We public do not need every single detail.
My 2 cents folks!
Odd that the resident interviewed commented that “many new residents are immigrants”. Palo Alto and the Bay Area are pretty diverse.
Diversity has nothing to do with whether someone is an immigrant.
When police are tight-lipped like this, it’s because they don’t have much information. They have bits and pieces, but nothing substantial — or else they would be moving to the next phase. She was either killed by a relative or an intruder. The spouse isn’t in custody, so I’m guessing it was an intruder.
We left a few years back. The neighborhood was becoming a little too rough for us. Less community, more renters.
http://www.healthnutnews.com/renowned-holistic-doctor-found-stabbed-death-palo-alto-home/
by the way there have been at least 50 suspicious deaths of holistic doctors recently.
If this wealthy woman had so many sources of income, and so many business contacts on two continents, as well as having money to invest in start-ups, why would she involve herself in such risky behavior as providing short-term rentals to total strangers?
Sounds like something was amiss in Ms. Shi’s life.