Found Deceased CA - Erin Valenti, 33, from Utah, en-route from Palo Alto to San Jose, 7 Oct 2019 #2

[MJPeony]

If she said to the police that she was with friends, would they still be looking for her if they believed her? IMO if she had been with friends she would not have ended up alone in the back of the car.

IMO, (if we go by what this recent article states) if LE did believe she was with friends, and tried to look for her for the better part of an hour to no avail, it’s likely they did consider her relatively safe at that point. Although I personally don’t think that was a wise assumption!

As for ending up alone in her car, she could have been with friends earlier when talking to police and then left her friends- hence eventually alone.

MOO.

 

[indicolite22]

Pommy your timelines SO helpful- thank you!!
Basement minions working overtime I see

I believe her body was found Sat Oct 12th (main timeline), and it was that same morning- (Sat Oct 12th)- that family posted on the Find Erin facebook page how vulnerable they thought the she was.

The first media tweet about her body being found was posted at 5:05 pm on Sat Oct 12th.

 

[155etta]

Definitely worth mentioning just b/c she mentions The Matrix quite a bit on her SM. I had no idea about Matrix drug trips!

She also says "tripping balls" a few times as well and mentions "borderless", whatever that means. My mind keeps going to LSD. If so, I don't think she took it intentionally. I can't imagine flying on a plane while tripping, but maybe she wanted to. I think maybe it was slipped to her. That is what her behavior sounds like to me, LSD. My second guess is a raging infection.

Edit: punctuation

 

[MJPeony]

From Pommy’s timeline:


“Wed Oct 9

• Detectives from SJPD’s missing-persons unit were assigned to the case, and sent electronic bulletins to police agencies around the greater Bay Area, extending as far as Monterey. They also re-canvassed local hospitals, and interviewed EV’s friends and associates.”

This is just the strangest thing to me. I only found out about there being a missing woman on Thursday October 10th through a Nextdoor post. Nothing tweeted or listed from the Palo Alto police, etc.

But oddly, if you go down to Oct 5, you can see they were updating on a missing man, so it’s not like they don’t use twitter for such things.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaloAltoPolice?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

I guess the sad truth may be that the planned power outages consumed LE’s focus for a few days.

MOO

 

[Vail]

'The police do not suspect foul play'
Why not?
Whereas they would in all likelihood have results of prelim autopsy at time of statement, it's unlikely they would have sufficient info to make a declaration like that, unless it was pretty obvious.
The Mercury report stated they had interviewed all her known acquaintances and the people she had met...
Yet they kept her family in interview rooms throughout the night, the night she was found.
Her husband expressed his dissatisfaction with this...
What could they possibly learn from her family that they didn't already know, they had been in close communication from 8th since her husband flew out there.

RSBM

It was previously reported that the EMTs had to break the window to open the car doors. This indicates Erin was locked inside. The only way to do that is from the inside, unless the keys were missing. I am guessing her essentials were all inside with her - keys, id, wallet. There was also no obvious signs of trauma or assault if we take LE at their word.

I think keeping everyone in interview rooms is standard procedure until they can rule out foul play. Hubs may not have been in close contact with the specific detectives that did these interviews.

 

[kittythehare]

If she said to the police that she was with friends, would they still be looking for her if they believed her? IMO if she had been with friends she would not have ended up alone in the back of the car.

Well they had interviewed her contacts , pretty quickly, too. That probably includes all the course attendees as well. It suggests they gave it some credence.
It is quite possible she didn't want to be located, or believed she didn't want to be located by the police for whatever reason and lied in an effort to get them off her case.
She may well have gone partying with her friends instead of returning home and then gone to sleep it off in her car..
It's wide open.

 

[Seattle1]

From Pommy’s timeline:


“Wed Oct 9

• Detectives from SJPD’s missing-persons unit were assigned to the case, and sent electronic bulletins to police agencies around the greater Bay Area, extending as far as Monterey. They also re-canvassed local hospitals, and interviewed EV’s friends and associates.”

This is just the strangest thing to me. I only found out about there being a missing woman on Thursday October 10th through a Nextdoor post. Nothing tweeted or listed from the Palo Alto police, etc.

But oddly, if you go down to Oct 5, you can see they were updating on a missing man, so it’s not like they don’t use twitter for such things.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaloAltoPolice?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

I guess the sad truth may be that the planned power outages consumed LE’s focus for a few days.

MOO

When I first joined this thread and read EV's last live sighting was in Palo Alto, I checked out their PD's twitter and noticed they often tweet about persons reported missing. I saw nothing like this on the SJPD tweeter feed.

 

[kittythehare]

RSBM

It was previously reported that the EMTs had to break the window to open the car doors. This indicates Erin was locked inside. The only way to do that is from the inside, unless the keys were missing. I am guessing her essentials were all inside with her - keys, id, wallet. There was also no obvious signs of trauma or assault if we take LE at their word.

I think keeping everyone in interview rooms is standard procedure until they can rule out foul play. Hubs may not have been in close contact with the specific detectives that did these interviews.

Well if that's the case it does not sound like an obvious suicide complete with a note.
But they weren't flight risks, it could have waited.
Shock after shock after shock...

 

[Seattle1]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN....

 

[Seattle1]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN....

 

[CSIDreamer]

RSBM

It was previously reported that the EMTs had to break the window to open the car doors. This indicates Erin was locked inside. The only way to do that is from the inside, unless the keys were missing. I am guessing her essentials were all inside with her - keys, id, wallet. There was also no obvious signs of trauma or assault if we take LE at their word.

I think keeping everyone in interview rooms is standard procedure until they can rule out foul play. Hubs may not have been in close contact with the specific detectives that did these interviews.

Her luggage as well should be accounted for.

 

[10ofRods]

I'm assuming "no sign of foul play" means no obvious injuries to her body.

The guesses upthread about the Matrix drugs seem pretty right on, to me. I hope they get hold of that "friend" she met on Sand Hill Road, before she lost track of her car. Sand Hill runs from El Camino Real past the border of Stanford (near the medical center) up through a high tech industrial park area (where SLAC/linear accelerator is) but then turns into a rural road with expensive homes, and heads toward Portola Valley/Woodside (where there are still living hold-outs from the Grateful Dead era, complete with boutique drug sales, IME).

I would be very curious to know whether Erin had a prescription for any type of sleep aid. Lots of people who travel internationally, as she did, have such an Rx, but combined with other drugs, it can be dangerous. Surely Erin was not exactly thrilled about sleeping in her car (which speaks a lot to her level of confusion, she could have gone to a nearby hotel). It seems she may not have been able to figure out how to charge her phone? If the car was completely out of gas, that explains that. I first thought she sounded manic (due to husband's info) but a manic person would most likely get out of the car and walk the short distance to a gas station or at least approach total strangers to ask for gas. Of course, manic people can crash rather suddenly, too.

Whole incident is truly bizarre and I'm guessing we won't know much more until the toxicology report is released. If it's negative and they don't find evidence of some major disease process (which to me seems far-fetched, as it would have had to have very sudden onset), this will be one of those really strange unexplained deaths. Heart attack is always possible when under stress, but she was so young. Still, if she underwent a lot of weight loss quickly, it's also a possibility.

 

[Rosiebones]

She may have been tired, and run down from her schedule and picked up an infection. She had so many symptoms of sepsis, the confusion and disorientation, rapid onset. I guess I don't pick up the drug angle so much from her background and business and family, on the other hand absolutely anyone can have a drug problem. Await the result of the autopsy.

 

[Tee7077]

Wait so if I drive up a particular rural road old dead heads are going to run up to my car and offer me boutique drugs?

 

[Satchie]

I think there are a lot of standard (and wise) police procedures in place that are being questioned here. Police are run as a bureaucracy, just like hospitals, search and rescue organizations, the Red Cross, governments, etc, etc. They have to make sure they use their resources wisely, for the benefit of the whole community.

At the same time that San Jose police had this report of a woman in a rental car, in an emotional state who missed her flight, I'm sure they had dozens of other calls from other people who also desperately needed their help. Those other people's stories, of violence, drugs, crime, suicide, aren't featured on this forum, so they're treated as though they don't exist.

No organization can drop all their procedures and protocol because one particular case tugs at their heartstrings, no matter how desperate the family is to have them do it in their own case. Police can't say 'they seem like such a nice family and she must be a really special person, so we'll put her on the front burner and neglect all the less savoury, sad, desperate people who are our usual clients.'

In the real world, 'vulnerable' means children and other people who are living with a diagnosed vulnerablility, such as a senior with Alzheimers. Those are the people who get special police alerts.

Police can't just decide one person is vulnerable because her husband says so. In fact, I'm following a domestic violence trial on this forum of a husband who reported his wife to police as missing and suicidal, after she left him because he was abusive. It was all part of his campaign to discredit what she might be saying about him.

I'm sure if police could have located her, they'd have assessed her in person. But she didn't want to be located. Of course, they were quite aware that she may have been lying to them about being with other people, but if that's what she said, they have to take it at face value. Similarly, when the officer tried to elicit her location, she talked 'nonsensically', which, again, could have been a strategy to ensure he couldn't find her.

Would it have been appropriate for an ambulance to go trolling up and down every street in the neighbourhood, trying to find her? Then why do people believe police have infinite resources available to do just that?

 

[happyday]

Yes, 10ofRods, this whole thing is bizarre! Right down to the seminar she went to before the incident.

I think someone on the memorial page said the friend from Sand Hill Rd. was cooperating, but I really wonder about that whole meeting. As someone on the 1st thread said, she was apparently fine until that meeting, then she lost her mind and died.

ETA I replied to your post—don’t know why it didn’t show up! WS is acting up for me.

 

[PixieStix]

I have reached my limit on Mercury news, which seems to be where all the informative news articles are. Did LE just come out and say there were no signs of obvious foul play after the prelim autopsy results were in? If someone has access to the article from Mercury News, people here are talking about can you post the good parts of the article? LE is most likely going to proceed with releasing information very cautiously with the backlash of how they handled this case.

 

[Colorado303]

Absolutely. She could have told them she was with friends and have sounded “nonsensical” at the same time.

Very possible. And just because she said she was w/friends doesn’t mean it was true—as someone else mentioned she may have said it just to get LE off her back.

I don’t recall the family saying anything about her reportedly “being with friends” later that evening. So either:

1). LE didn’t share that part of the conversation with her family

2). The family knew she told LE she was with friends but didn’t believe she was telling the truth.

3). The family thought it might be true she was with friends but withheld that information thinking people would be more likely to search for her if she went missing alone.

Maybe she was w/friends and maybe not. I’m leaning towards “not”, but that’s largely based on the family’s account.

If she was with friends that changes a lot. Does anyone believe she was?

 

[happyday]

I

Very possible. And just because she said she was w/friends doesn’t mean it was true—as someone else mentioned she may have said it just to get LE off her back.

I don’t recall the family saying anything about her reportedly “being with friends” later that evening. So either:

1). LE didn’t share that part of the conversation with her family

2). The family knew she told LE she was with friends but didn’t believe she was telling the truth.

3). The family thought it might be true she was with friends but withheld that information thinking people would be more likely to search for her if she went missing alone.

Maybe she was w/friends and maybe not. I’m leaning towards “not”, but that’s largely based on the family’s account.

If she was with friends that changes a lot. Does anyone believe she was?

I’m thinking most likely she was not with friends. She was already confused when alone and looking for her car. She was off and on talking to family, then found in her car alone. I guess she could have hooked up with friends in there somewhere, but if she were going to meet people and blow off her flight home, why call her parents? She supposedly was TRYING to get to the airport.

 

[Kapua]

I think there are a lot of standard (and wise) police procedures in place that are being questioned here. Police are run as a bureaucracy, just like hospitals, search and rescue organizations, the Red Cross, governments, etc, etc. They have to make sure they use their resources wisely, for the benefit of the whole community.

At the same time that San Jose police had this report of a woman in a rental car, in an emotional state who missed her flight, I'm sure they had dozens of other calls from other people who also desperately needed their help. Those other people's stories, of violence, drugs, crime, suicide, aren't featured on this forum, so they're treated as though they don't exist.

No organization can drop all their procedures and protocol because one particular case tugs at their heartstrings, no matter how desperate the family is to have them do it in their own case. Police can't say 'they seem like such a nice family and she must be a really special person, so we'll put her on the front burner and neglect all the less savoury, sad, desperate people who are our usual clients.'

In the real world, 'vulnerable' means children and other people who are living with a diagnosed vulnerablility, such as a senior with Alzheimers. Those are the people who get special police alerts.

Police can't just decide one person is vulnerable because her husband says so. In fact, I'm following a domestic violence trial on this forum of a husband who reported his wife to police as missing and suicidal, after she left him because he was abusive. It was all part of his campaign to discredit what she might be saying about him.

I'm sure if police could have located her, they'd have assessed her in person. But she didn't want to be located. Of course, they were quite aware that she may have been lying to them about being with other people, but if that's what she said, they have to take it at face value. Similarly, when the officer tried to elicit her location, she talked 'nonsensically', which, again, could have been a strategy to ensure he couldn't find her.

Would it have been appropriate for an ambulance to go trolling up and down every street in the neighbourhood, trying to find her? Then why do people believe police have infinite resources available to do just that?

Had the license plate number been posted on highway signs on 101 and also on the Nextdoor app, someone may have located the vehicle sooner. However, IMHO, Erin passed late Monday night or early Tuesday morning (awaiting autopsy results to confirm). I base my opinion on the fact that her cell phone battery lost power around midnight and she never recharged it. She needed to be found quickly that night, and unfortunately did not clearly communicate her location to someone so that emergency services could find her and help her. Had she exited her vehicle and knocked on someone's door, she may have found the help she desperately needed. Her driving was apparently not erratic enough to attract attention. I do think that SJPD needs to examine their process in light of this tragedy, but this was a situation where minutes counted. SJ is a big city; there weren't enough eyes in the right place when they needed to be. MOO and rest in love, Erin.