Google engineer, 27, confesses to savagely beating his wife to death with his FIST at their $2 million Santa Clara home just hours after they had dinner with a friend who says killer was oddly ‘quiet and staring blankly’
The Google engineer charged with murder last week admitted to beating his wife to death with his fist at their $2 million Santa Clara home, according to court documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
Police noted that suspect Liren Chen’s right hand was “extremely swollen and purple” and that he had blood on his clothing, legs, arms and hands, records show.
When fire officials asked the 27-year-old how he hurt his hand, he replied, “I hit my wife,” and told them it happened the day before, records show.
A friend of Chen’s told police that he had seen Chen with his wife, Xuanyi Yu, the night before, when he went to their home for dinner, and that Chen was strangely “quiet and staring blankly for much of the evening.”
The friend told police he was concerned about this “noticeable change in Chen’s behavior,” the report said.
Liren Chen, the Google engineer charged with murder last week, admitted to beating his wife to death with his fist in their $2 million Santa Clara home, according to court documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
A friend of Chen’s told police that he had seen Chen with his wife, Xuanyi Yu, the night before, when he joined them for dinner at their $2 million home in Santa Clara (pictured), and that Chen was strangely “quiet and a stared blankly for much of the time’. the evening.
The friend returned to the Santa Clara home the next day, January 16, to check on him.
He walked around the back and saw Chen through a rear window sitting motionless on his knees with his hands in the air, staring blankly, according to the “statement of facts” filed by police and obtained by DailyMail.com.
Unable to get Chen to respond, the friend called 911. Officers saw Chen through the window with blood on his jacket and socks.
He became unresponsive, prompting them to push their way inside. They took Chen into custody and found his wife, a fellow Google engineer, lying on the floor in a bedroom directly behind him.
Police said she suffered “serious blunt force injuries” to her head. There was also blood splatter on the ground and on the back of the door.
In addition to the extreme bruising and blood on his right hand and body, police noticed that Chen’s sandals, found in the hallway, were also covered in blood.
When fire officials asked the 27-year-old how he hurt his hand, he replied, “I hit my wife,” and told them it happened “yesterday,” the documents said.
No weapon was found, but the detective who wrote the report stated that Chen apparently used his bare hands to kill her and “repeatedly hit her in the head.”
His wife, Xuanyi Yu, who worked at Google as a software engineer, was found dead with blunt force trauma to her head
In Yu’s wake, flowers were left at the door of Chen and Yu’s home in Santa Clara
Chen, who was initially taken to a hospital, remains in custody awaiting an arraignment on Wednesday.
He and Yu bought their home at 714 Valley Way last spring in April for $2.05 million, according to property records.
The two-story home, freshly painted with a manicured lawn and shrubs, is located in a quiet residential neighborhood in Silicon Valley.
A silver BMW SUV was parked Monday in the driveway of the now-closed home, which was already packed with crime scene investigators last Tuesday when they arrived in the morning and stayed into the night.
“That’s my bedroom window right there,” neighbor Jenny Powell, 43, told DailyMail.com. ‘I am shocked. This was all happening and I had no idea.”
Powell said Chen and his wife had lived there since April of last year with a cat named Cooper and that they seemed friendly and brought her cookies and a card when they moved in.
But the couple mainly kept to themselves. When Powell’s son heard about the murder, he said to his mother, “You mean the locks next door?”
“They weren’t here long and didn’t have much contact with people,” Powell said.
Jenny Powell, a neighbor, said Chen and his wife had lived there since April last year with a cat named Cooper and that they seemed friendly and brought her cookies and a card when they moved in.
The couple both worked for Google as software engineers in California
She described the bizarre scene where a dozen police cars flooded her block and a CSI truck was parked in front of her house all day.
Another neighbor, Sylivia Atondo, told DailyMail.com that she had only seen the couple walking down the street a few times.
“They seemed friendly when we saw them, nothing special,” she said.
She said her neighborhood is close-knit and has a lot of gossip, so “whenever there was an argument involving neighbors, people around here would talk about it. But there was nothing. That’s why the neighbors are completely shocked.’
Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson told The New York Post in a statement: “We are shocked and deeply saddened by what happened to Xuanyi.
‘Our thoughts are with her family at this time and we will do our best to provide support to them and colleagues as they cope with this tragic news.’
According to his Linkedin, Chen worked on the YouTube short algorithm for Google, while Yu’s page says she was a software engineer.
Both studied in China at Tsinghua University and the University of California San Diego.
Chen and Yu bought their home at 714 Valley Way last spring in April for $2.05 million, according to property records
The two-story home, freshly painted with a manicured lawn and shrubs, is located in a quiet residential neighborhood in Silicon Valley
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said domestic violence calls have increased.
He added: “The number of deaths from domestic violence has fallen in our province, but that says nothing about the depth and devastating nature of the violence.
“Anyone who feels that they or someone else is being abused by their partners, please contact your local law enforcement agency. You are not alone. We can help.’