Police defend search efforts
Family criticizes department after missing Utah tech CEO is found dead in rental car
SAN JOSE >> Responding to criticism by the family of a Utah tech executive who was reported missing last week and found dead in her rental car Saturday, San Jose police on Tuesday described in detail the steps they took to try to find the woman.
The family of Erin Valenti, 33, has raised questions about whether she could have been found sooner, or perhaps even alive, if the police had acted more aggressively.
After Valenti’s body was found in her rental car on a quiet residential street in Almaden, her father told this news organization that he was frustrated with the initial police response to the family’s report of her disappearance, calling it a “charade.”
San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia said Tuesday that he sympathized with Valenti’s family and wanted to stress that the department took the report seriously.
“We were on this case. We didn’t ignore this case,” Garcia said. “We’re going to look at everything we did and see if there are ways to improve.”
But, he added, “we could have done everything perfectly, and a grieving family and friends are always going to think you could have done more. That’s a perfectly understandable feeling to have.”
Valenti’s family members did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for further comment.
Valenti, chief executive of the Utah-based app development company Tinker Ventures, was reported missing the night of Oct. 7 after she missed her return flight from San Jose to Salt Lake City.
She had been in Southern California for a workshop and in Monterey for a tech conference before driving to the Bay Area to visit friends and former colleagues.
Valenti’s husband, Harrison Weinstein, called San Jose police after she missed her flight, and Valenti’s parents said that in their conversations with her earlier that afternoon, she sounded strange. They described her thoughts as “disconnected” and said she “talked a mile a minute.”
Police said that about 10 p.m. that night, at the family’s request, they called Valenti on her cellphone and she answered. She “indicated she was with friends,” police said.