Man found strangled with power cord in 1987, CA police say. DNA now leads to suspect
A man has been charged nearly four decades after police said a machine and sheet metal worker was found dead inside his own apartment, California officials say.
Joseph Anthony Abeyta, 55, was charged with murder in the 1987 death of Jesus Ibarra, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a Sept. 20 news release.
“There is no statute of limitations on finding, arresting, and prosecuting people who hurt and kill the people of our community,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the release. “Violent criminals should look over their shoulders because we’re coming.”
Some of Ibarra’s family attended Abeyta’s Sept. 20 arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Michael Gilman told KGO-TV.
“They just want justice,” Gilman told the outlet.
Family members found Ibarra, 46, dead inside his San Jose apartment on April 22, 1987, prosecutors said.
San Jose police arrived at the apartment to find Ibarra with “an electrical cord wrapped around his neck,” and he was pronounced dead on scene, the police department said in a news release.
Family last saw Ibarra three days earlier, according to prosecutors.
The day before his body was found, police found his car, which “had been burned up from the inside,” prosecutors said.
The medical examiner’s office determined he had died from “blunt force trauma to the neck,” prosecutors said.
Despite “a comprehensive investigation,” a suspect was not identified, and the case went cold, police said.
Decades later, police detectives and the district attorney’s office reopened the case.
When Abeyta was arrested in a separate case earlier this year, his DNA was collected and entered into the Combined DNA Index System, Gilman told KGO-TV.
It was a hit, Gilman said, according to the outlet.
“Then we went ahead and did a confirmation to confirm his DNA that we collected upon his arrest for his other case and confirmed it was a match,” Gilman told the outlet.
The DNA testing linked Abeyta to Ibarra’s body and “other places at the crime scene,” prosecutors said.
Police said they are still investigating a motive for the killing.
Evidence showed the men knew one another, according to prosecutors.
“Abeyta may have stolen Ibarra’s gold chain necklace, a ring, and his car, which was found burned near” Abeyta’s home, prosecutors said.
In 1987, Abeyta lived less than a block from where police found Ibarra’s charred car, prosecutors said.
Abeytais already in jail on charges related to a separate incident, police said.
If convicted as charged, Abeyta could potentially face a 25-year to life prison sentence, according to prosecutors.
San Jose is about a 50-mile drive southeast from San Francisco.
This story was originally published September 23, 2024 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Man found strangled with power cord in 1987, CA police say. DNA now leads to suspect."
