SAN JOSE — A caregiver tasked with giving in-home care to an intellectually disabled man has been arrested and criminally charged after authorities alleged that her negligence resulted in the death of the man, whose body was found alone and “emaciated” in a San Jose home last year.
Police officers were called around 9:30 a.m. on May, 17, 2025 to a home in the 1200 block of Mastic Street, in the city’s Alma neighborhood, for a report of an unattended death, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The officers found a 40-year-old man known to have a developmental disability unconscious and not breathing, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Investigators reported that the man, since identified as Joshua Sanchez, “was emaciated and lacked basic necessities, prompting officers to suspect neglect.”
That suspicion was confirmed by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, which on August 29, 2025, formally concluded that Sanchez died from probable sepsis caused by “acute necrotizing pneumonia” in multiple lobes of his lungs “due to debility in (the) setting of severe intellectual disability and caregiver neglect.”
The coroner wrote that other causes of his death included cachexia — also known as “wasting syndrome” characterized by significant weight and muscle loss — with hypernatremic dehydration, and chronic blunt force injuries in varying stages of healing.
Homicide detectives launched an investigation and eventually identified Sanchez’s caretaker, 69-year-old Enid Acevedo of Gilroy, as a suspect in his death. They obtained an arrest warrant and took Acevedo into custody in Gilroy on March 18, police said.
Court records show Acevedo was arraigned in county court Friday on a charge of felony abuse of a dependent adult resulting in death. Police said Monday that “the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation.”
The death is being treated as San Jose’s 27th homicide of 2025.
Anyone with information for the criminal investigation can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Joel Martinez at 4117@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Melissa Aboud at 4468@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.