UNINCORPORATED SANTA CLARA COUNTY – On August 28, 2014 Santa Clara Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an area where a fire and body were reported to be lying on the side of the roadway. Responding to the area of Oak Glen Avenue and Uvas Road near Morgan Hill, Cal Fire and Paramedics quickly responded to the scene.
Sheriff’s deputies, Cal Fire and paramedics located a small grass fire with the body of an unknown person down an embankment on Oak Glen Avenue. Paramedics were unable to identify the body and pronounced the incident as a “death at the scene”.
The body was discovered off this rural road in Morgan Hill.
According to authorities, “A motorist was driving on Oak Glen Avenue when they observed smoke off the side of the road”. During this time dispatchers were also alerted by other drivers in the area seeing a body on fire off to the side of the roadway. “Concerned it may have been a grass fire, they stopped to investigate,” a Sheriff’s spokesman said. An unidentified motorist called 9-1-1 dispatchers to report seeing a body on fire just off the roadway in the brush.
Sheriff’s Office Homicide Detectives and Crime Scene Investigation Team were dispatched to the area in order to recover trace evidence and take witness statements at the scene. The Sheriff’s office has declined to comment about the name of the victim until the identity can be confirmed and their next of kin notified.
The Sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help in locating any witnesses that may have been in the area when the incident occurred. A PIO spokesman said, “If anyone was in the area of Oak Glen Avenue and Uvas Road around 8 am on Thursday, August 28th, please contact the Sheriff’s Office Investigation Division at 408-808-4431”.
Update 9/5/14 – the body has now been identified as 35-year-old Julie Teresa Calocci of San Jose. A fund raising site has been set up on GoFundMe.com. Friends have posted messages of sorrow and disbelief on her Facebook page, with hopes of help to find her killer.
Update 9/23/14 – An arrest has been made in the case, Edgardo Gutierrez of San Jose has been charged with murder. See related story here.
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KTVU: Investigation underway after burned body found near Morgan Hill
