Welcome to Arrest Stories. A seventy-five-year-old man has been arrested in Oregon for the nineteen ninety-seven murder of an eighty-four-year-old San Jose woman, solved through new DNA testing after twenty-seven years. Here's what may have happened.
On December nineteenth, twenty twenty-five, Joe Angel Contreras was taken into custody in Oregon in connection with the brutal killing of Alice Sharitz. The victim was discovered dead in her East San Jose apartment on North Jackson Avenue in nineteen ninety-seven by a neighbor who was delivering a card. The neighbor found the door ajar, looked inside, saw Sharitz on the floor, and called nine one one.
Alice Sharitz was found lying on her living room floor with a wooden-handled knife embedded in her chest and visible abrasions on both knees. An autopsy revealed Sharitz had suffered two stab wounds to the chest, multiple fractures, neck injuries, and numerous facial abrasions. Her cause of death was determined to be multiple traumatic injuries. The home was ransacked but showed no signs of forced entry, suggesting Sharitz knew her killer.
The case went cold for more than twenty years despite exhaustive investigative efforts. The breakthrough came when new DNA testing was conducted on mucus found in a toilet at the victim's apartment decades ago. In February twenty twenty-five, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office crime lab confirmed the DNA profile matched Contreras.
Officials revealed that Contreras and Sharitz had been in a romantic relationship at the time of the murder. "Our understanding is that Mister Contreras was in a romantic relationship with Miss Sharitz at the time. This was an incredibly violent killing," investigators stated.
On Tuesday, January sixth, twenty twenty-six, Joe Contreras was extradited to San Jose and booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail, where he is being held without bail. Contreras is scheduled to be arraigned on January twelfth.
"Time does not erase responsibility. And thanks to the relentless work of our Homicide Unit and the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit, it never will," officials said.
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.