San Jose police located the city's latest homicide suspect. Police said the man's body was located inside his car in San Benito County Saturday afternoon, the apparent victim of a suicide.
Troy Edward Nosenzo was the suspected of killing his wife, a 54-year-old woman still unidentified by authorities.
Police found the woman's body in the entryway of her home on Friday.
She is the city's 41st homicide this year.
Police said they were seeking Nosenzo for allegedly killing the woman in her south San Jose home, and then fleeing in a gray 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, with a California license plate # 8L70015.
The news about Nosenzo follows a discovery just about 6 a.m. when they went to the 6100 block of Evangeline Drive after receiving a 911 hangup call about 20 minutes earlier. When they arrived, they found her there, face down and dead, in her front entryway. Police have not said how she died.
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Alongside her were a chihuahua and a Rottweiler, police said, which were not harmed but were acting "aggressively" toward officers, police said.
The SJPD Covert Response Unit, with assitance from the San Benito County Sheriff's Office, located the suspect's vehicle on the side of the road on Highway 129, west of Highway 101. Inside the vehicle, officers said they located the suspect deceased. It is believed the suspect committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. The actual cause of death will be determined by the Medical Examiner's Office, a news release read.
The woman's death makes this year's homicide count the highest in 15 years. The number is just shy of the 1997 high of 43 homicides, according to police.
Lt. Rob Millard told NBC Bay Area that they were delayed in answering the 911 call because of seemingly unrelated incidents in the "general area." Police said that someone had been taking bricks and placing them on the gas pedal of a stolen car and then smashing the car into a house. NBC Bay Area is aware of at least one car smashing into a house on Silver Leaf Road early Friday morning, where the driver fled. That street is about five miles away from the woman's home. Police did not say whether this case was connected to that.
Millard said another cause for delay was waiting for animal services to arrive to clear the woman's two dogs from the home. Police finally were able to enter about 7:50 a.m. The Santa Clara County coroner took the body from the home just before 1 p.m.
One neighbor, Marla Hall, called the woman "friendly" and noted she was often in the neighborhood walking her Rottweiler.
Anyone with information about this case should call the San José Police Department, Homicide Unit at (408) 277-5283.
