SAN JOSE – A man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife at their West San Jose home then fleeing out of the area early Sunday, police said.
A woman was found dead by her adult son around 2:50 a.m. at a home in the 900 block of Wainwright Drive, located west of South Bascom Avenue north of Southwest Expressway, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The son called police, and responding officers reported that the victim “showed signs of trauma,” and appears to have been assaulted, Sgt. Jorge Garibay said.
The victim’s name was not publicly released pending her formal identification by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office. Public records for residents of the home indicate that she was in her late 50s.
Homicide detectives soon identified 60-year-old Venko Gospodinov, the victim’s estranged husband, as the primary suspect, Garibay said. Records list the victim, Gospodinov, and two men with the same last name — one in his late 20s and the other in his early 30s — as residents of the Wainwright Drive address.
The detectives tracked Gospodinov to Capitola, and he was arrested later Sunday, according to police and jail records. Gospodinov was booked into the county Main Jail in San Jose and was being held without bail.
Additional details were not released by police. The killing is the 22nd homicide of the year recorded in San Jose.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283, or email Detective Sgt. Rafael Varela at 3638@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Jose Montoya at 3644@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.
Originally Published: October 6, 2025 at 9:42 AM PDT