The family of tech CEO Erin Valenti is reeling after she was reportedly found dead in her rental car in San Jose, California. Now they want answers. Valenti’s father, Joseph Valenti, claimed that police slow-walked the investigation into her disappearance.
“The beginning of it was a charade,” he said, according to The Mercury News. “And I am totally frustrated and pissed off with how that was conducted.”
Erin Valenti was in California for a tech conference, and was due back to a flight to Utah on Monday. Her father, however, said she had an apparent manic episode that day. Valenti’s family spoke with her on and off for hours on the phone.
“Her thoughts were disconnected,” her father reportedly said. “She talked a mile a minute. She’d say I’m coming home for Thanksgiving, then in the next she was saying she’s in the Matrix.”
She had no history of facing mental illness, her husband reportedly said.
Valenti’s father said they reported their concerns to police. He said they told authorities about her rental car, her behavior, and the data tracking her last phone call. Officers didn’t file a missing person report until Thursday and only described Erin as voluntarily missing, the father said. According to him, the family was told that she was an adult, and perhaps went off by herself for several days.
“That’s bullshit because she was due for a flight out of San Jose airport back to Salt Lake City,” Joseph Valenti said.
The family started a Facebook page in a bid to help find Erin Valenti. A volunteer recognized her grey SUV, and found her body in the backseat, the father said.
Officials have not released cause of death. San Jose police didn’t discuss the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
[Screengrab via KPIX]