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Businesses United States Technology

Erin Valenti, CEO of Tinker Ventures, Found Dead In Trunk of Her Rental Car (deseret.com) 89

Posted by BeauHD from the mysterious-disappearances dept.
McGruber shares a report from Deseret News, a newspaper published in Salt Lake City: The body of Erin Valenti, a tech entrepreneur who had been missing since Monday, was found Saturday in the trunk of her rental car. The 33-year-old Valenti was the CEO of Utah-based Tinker Ventures, a company that develops web and smartphone applications.

In a Wednesday Facebook post, Valenti's husband, Harrison Weinstein, wrote that she had been missing since Monday night and was last seen in Palo Alto Monday afternoon and was wearing "torn jeans and a white T-shirt." Valenti was scheduled to receive an award at an event Wednesday hosted by Utah-based Women Tech Council but never appeared at the event in Salt Lake City, according to organizers. Police said the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office will determine the manner and cause of death and have not released any further details on the incident.
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Erin Valenti, CEO of Tinker Ventures, Found Dead In Trunk of Her Rental Car More

Erin Valenti, CEO of Tinker Ventures, Found Dead In Trunk of Her Rental Car

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  • Just came to say that Tinker Ventures is a really lousy name for a web design shop. Not as bad as Fraud Guarantee, mind you...

  • Coincidences (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Beeftopia ( 1846720 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @07:46PM (#59307708)

    Valenti's the 2nd tech company CEO in about two weeks to be found dead in a car. First one I saw was out in Santa Cruz, name was Tushar Atre [latimes.com]. Similar companies too, web design or digital marketing.

    • Re:Coincidences (Score:5, Informative)

      by Beeftopia ( 1846720 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @09:45PM (#59307970)

      One more point: these decedents were found about 20 miles apart: Atre at 24000 Soquel San Jose Rd, Valenti at 6500 Bose Lane (2nd para) [deseret.com]. If I've got the right locations mapped, this is the Google Maps link between them. [google.com]

      So: Two CEOs of web development companies, killed about 20 miles apart...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You don't think it was Hans Reiser?

    • The actual article says she was found "in the back of a car" (emphasis mine), not the trunk. That's mirrored in another article [mercurynews.com], where residents of the residential neighborhood where she was found "were trying to figure out how the young woman’s body had been right there — almost in plain sight — for what could have been days."

      • A day after Erin Valenti was found dead in the back seat of her rental car on a street in San Jose's quiet Almaden neighborhood, questions are emerging about how authorities handled her missing person case.

        San Jose police Sgt. Enrique Garcia said, via email, that police are conducting "a death investigation" after discovering a body Saturday in the back of a car in the 6500 block of Bose Lane in San Jose.

  • Not sure, but I thought it was mandatory that ALL new-ish cars had an internal trunk release switch so you couldn't be kidnapped.

    Now, FINDING it in the dark while you're all tied up and / or dead is a different matter. But Congress passed a law so it's all OK.

    I sure am glad they're making new laws all of the time, those older ones were just hard to read and enforce.

    • Re:Found Dead In Trunk of Her Rental Car (Score:4, Funny)

      by Ryzilynt ( 3492885 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @08:28PM (#59307820)

      Turns out the switch doesn't work if you are dead. :/

    • If you read other news reports she was either having a major breakdown or on some serious drugs the last time her family talked to her. So it was a suicide...
      • Yes most suicide victims either tie their hands behind their back and then shoot themselves twice in the back of he head or put themselves in the boot of a car before driving to the middle of nowhere.

        • Yes most suicide victims either tie their hands behind their back and then shoot themselves twice in the back of he head or put themselves in the boot of a car before driving to the middle of nowhere.

          Given that she was found dead in the back seat of the car, not shot, not tied up, and not in the boot, could you perhaps be on the same drugs she may have been on? According to a family member she thought she was in the Matrix when she talked to them on the phone.

          • According to a family member she thought she was in the Matrix when she talked to them on the phone.

            Those goddamn cats...

        • If you can drive there, then it's not the middle of nowhere.

          Someone built that road (even if it is a dirt road) from point A to point B. The same goes for footpaths - they need a certain amount of traffic to remain visible.

    • From the San Jose Mercury News:

      "A day after Erin Valenti was found dead in the back seat of her rental car on a street in San Jose’s quiet Almaden neighborhood, questions are emerging about how authorities handled her missing person case."

      BACK SEAT.

      That car does not have a trunk.

  • Father questions San Jose police response (Score:5, Informative)

    by McGruber ( 1417641 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @08:09PM (#59307782)
    The Mercury News is now reporting that the family had to use Facebook volunteers to find her after the San Jose Police refused to search for her:Father questions San Jose police response after tech CEO daughter found dead [mercurynews.com]

    Valenti’s family went to the police, who spoke to her by phone and went looking for her, but were not able to locate her, her family said. But Joseph Valenti said despite all of the information his family gave the police — the make, model and license plate of her rental car, descriptions of her erratic behavior on the phone, and data tracking her last phone call to the Almaden neighborhood — police didn’t file an official missing person report for Erin Valenti until Thursday. And when they did, they described her as voluntarily missing, Joseph Valenti said. The police told the family that she was an adult, and she could have just taken off for a few days, her father said. The result, he said, was that the department didn’t make searching for her a priority.

    “That’s bullshit,” Joseph Valenti said, “because she was due for a flight out of San Jose airport back to Salt Lake City.”

    Disappointed with the police department’s response, the family set up a “Help Find Erin Valenti” Facebook page, and received an outpouring of love, support and Bay Area locals who volunteered to search. It was one of those Facebook volunteers who finally found Erin Valenti’s gray SUV parked at the curb of a suburban San Jose street, looked inside, and discovered her body in the back seat, Joseph Valenti said.

    The family still doesn’t know how Erin Valenti died, her father said. Her husband, Harrison Weinstein, had previously said she had no history of mental illness. Officials have not released a time of death or commented on how long she was in the car before being found.

    • Yea, someone in that police department knows more than they're saying.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        The internet knows more as well. Like not normal home location, so likely google maps was used or what ever equivalent, you have a route from one location to another, which would be provided every time, so how did travel differ, one what point did it change, so what happened there or shortly there in after. We do not even know the cause of death, from petty panicky thief and blow to the head to a pissed off developer who felt they were not going to get the share of what they believed would be a really prof

      • Alternative theory: That police department didn't give a shit. Remember, police have no duty of care.

    • That is entirely the care and attentiveness I've learned to expect from the police.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cederic ( 9623 )

        Record the missing person report, ascertain that this is an adult with no history of mental illness, compare and contrast to the last 780 missing person reports of adults with no mental illness, realise that 779 of them turned up alive having been merely out of contact for a day, decide not to expend scarce resources searching for someone that's probably not missing.

        Yes, that is indeed entirely the care and attentiveness I've learned to expect from the police.

        • But hey, at least they give traffic tickets!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Cederic ( 9623 )

            Given that ten times as many people in the USA die in traffic accidents each year as there are adults _reported_ missing, and given that many missing person reports are for adults that aren't in any danger or difficulty, perhaps seeking to reduce incidences of dangerous driving is a reasonable priority.

            • It's more likely that police are underfunded, understaffed, and don't do shit when you call them, asking for basically anything.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Baleet ( 4705757 )

      People always think their own issue is the most pressing, and it is, for them. Meanwhile, the police have an entire city to keep up with and are generally doing their jobs about as well as the rest of us do. The woman is an adult, there was no reason to expect foul play, and the cops probably know that most people who don't turn up when and where they are supposed to eventually turn up. All the people who preach process and planning expect the world to suddenly reconfigure itself in response to an emergency

  • Back of vehicle, not trunk (Score:5, Informative)

    by Justin Illusion ( 859674 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @08:46PM (#59307850)
    According to the article, her body was found in the "back" of the vehicle, not the trunk. This article is more specific: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/thats-bullsht-father-of-tech-ceo-daughter-found-dead-claims-cops-slow-walked-search-for-her/ [lawandcrime.com].

  • in 2009 software exec Kalish was murdered by her wife [miaminewtimes.com] Carol Burger, and put into the trunk of her car which was left a few miles from their home. The Kalish family when talking to police emphasized their suspicions that Burger was responsible, but there was a lot of delays until police finally entered the blood soaked home, to find Burger had shot herself.

    We also have the example of Reiser. And so many others.

    While it would be very bad to pursue the husband while ignoring other leads, we need a better mecha

    • Worry not, they ALWAYS suspect the husband and family before strangers because the statistics say it's highly likely the death was done by a family member, friend or acquaintance.

      In fact based on previous incidents it's actually more likely they will spend 99% of their time investigating the husband before investigating any stranger. You need look no further than many prior cases where the police focused in on the husband when there was no evidence whatsoever of their involvement. Even though her Husband wa

  • It is not for is to make suppositions. Her family needs answers from the authorities, not internet trolls.

  • My wife watches those crime shows on TV, where they investigate murders... I can tell you that the Husband ALWAYS did it... I don't think I've ever seen one of those shows where it wasn't the significant other who offed the victim and tried to hide the body.

  • It is a CUV, and as such doesn't have a trunk. "Trunk" reads to me as if someone put her in there, however with a CUV, you could park, and climb into the back over the seats. I'm still disappointed with the SJPD at how poorly they are handling this. The city has gone to hell.
  • Based on her not making sense, it sounds either like drugs or a stroke of some kind. High achievers are frequently manic-depressive (currently called "bipolar" as a PC euphemism). She may have been one of those, was in a manic state, and did something stupid, like buy fentanyl to be able to sleep. Or, went straight from manic to depressive and offed herself.

  • Guessing these two CEO's have something to rival Facebook, or discovered the NSA's backdoor in their apps...

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