- A body that may be of Erin Valenti, 33, the CEO of a Utah app-development company, was found this weekend near San Francisco, her family said.
- Valenti’s family reported her missing last week after she missed her flight back to Utah following a business trip. Her phone had been turned off, the family said.
- Authorities said they discovered a body on Saturday near where Valenti’s family was searching for her, but they did not confirm an identity. Valenti’s family has since called off a search.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The family of a missing Utah tech executive has called off a search for her after the police reported that a body was found inside a parked car in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The police in San Jose said a body was discovered Saturday in an area where the family of Erin Valenti, 33, had been searching. Authorities said they were working to confirm the identity of the person and the cause of death.
“While we were praying for a different outcome, we are so appreciative for the help and support you have given,” the search group Help Find Erin Valenti said in a Facebook post. “Please remember Erin as the beautiful, smart, funny woman that she was.”
Valenti headed Tinker Ventures, an app-development company in Salt Lake City.
Valenti's family grew worried after she missed her flight home last week following a business trip in California. She was last seen in Palo Alto on October 7 driving a rental car to San Jose for her flight, her family said in a Facebook post. Her phone was turned off Monday night, the family said.
Valenti's father, Joseph Valenti, called the investigation into his daughter's death a "charade" in a conversation with The Mercury News. He told the newspaper that the police didn't file a missing-person report until Thursday - days after the family reported her missing - and that authorities described her as voluntarily missing.
Joseph Valenti said that the department didn't make the search for his daughter a priority.
"I am totally frustrated and pissed off with how that was conducted," he told the Mercury News.
Erin Valenti's parents told the East Bay Times last week that they feared she may have had a manic episode.
"We talked to her for hours on and off" on Monday night, her mother, Whitey Valenti, told the newspaper. "Her thoughts were disconnected. 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," referring to the sci-fi movie.
Erin Valenti's husband, Harrison Weinstein, told the East Bay Times she had no history of mental illness.
"There's never any history of anything like this, no mental health diagnosis, no hospitalization, no substance use, no arrests - as clear of a record as you can get. This is incredibly unlike her," Weinstein said in a Facebook post last week. "She is an extremely high achievement, successful person."
If the body found is identified as Valenti, this is the second death of tech CEO this month in the San Francisco Bay Area. The body of 50-year-old Tushar Arte - the CEO of a web design company called AtreNet - was found in Santa Cruz on Oct. 1, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police told the Times he was found dead next to his girlfriend's car hours after he was abducted from his home during a suspected robbery.
