Dead Woman's Mom: “I Had a Sixth Sense”

Mother's intuition told Jamie Schipsi that her daughter would meet her fate at the hands of her boyfriend. Later that week, her worst fears were realized: her daughter had become a victim of a homicide. Police say her boyfriend killed her.

"I had a sixth sense something was going to happen," she told the Palo Alto Daily News.

Jennifer Schipsi was found dead on Oct. 16 inside the Palo Alto home she shared with her boyfriend. Investigators found her body inside the burning bedroom of the residence. But police say the 29-year-old didn't die as a result of the fire. They say Schipsi's boyfriend, Paul Zumot, killed her then set the room on fire to cover up the crime.

Schipsi's mother told the Palo Alto Daily News that she talked to her daughter on Tuesday, when she was birthday shopping for Zumot. The next day when Jaime tried to call her daughter, the call went straight to voicemail.

Alarm bells sounded in Jaime's head. "My daughter never turns off her cell phone," she said.

Zumot texted Jaime the day before her daughter's body was found, saying she had accepted his marriage proposal.

"How are you Mom," one of the texts said. "Your daughter gave me the best birthday present I ever had."

The mother-in-law-to be had long thought of Zumot as an "abuser."

"He broke her down," Jennifer's mom told the paper, "to nothing inside herself in terms of what she used to be."

Police say the pair had a rocky relationship and have called the crime one of passion. They even had restraining orders against each other in the past.

Zumot owns two hookah bars in Palo Alto and was part of a feature story the Chronicle published over the weekend. He was arrested Monday for suspicion of homicide and arson but he has not been charged. The district attorney has until Friday to file.
 

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