SAN JOSE \u2014 The only forensic lead in the 1997 killing of 84-year-old Alice Sharitz \u2014 found lying on the floor of her North Jackson Avenue apartment, savagely beaten with a knife protruding from her chest \u2014 was a \u201cglob of phlegm\u201d floating in her toilet bowl.<\/p>\n
![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SJM-L-SHARITZ-0108-2.jpg\")
Joe Angel Contreras, 75, of Dallas, Oregon, was arrested and charged in December 2025 with the 1997 stabbing and beating death of 84-year-old Alice Sharitz in her San Jose apartment. Authorities say they used DNA genealogy mapping to identify, arrest and charge Contreras with murder. (San Jose Police Dept.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the ensuing years, Sharitz\u2019s death became known to some investigators as \u201cthe loogie case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly three decades later, authorities say that telltale mucus has finally pointed to a suspect, 75-year-old Joe Angel Contreras, who was just extradited from Oregon to answer for the October 1997 homicide.<\/p>\n
Contreras was arrested in Dallas, Oregon on Dec. 19 and booked into the Santa Clara County jail Tuesday night, records show, three weeks after the Santa Clara County District Attorney\u2019s Office co-signed a San Jose Police Department cold-case investigation and filed a murder charge against him. He was scheduled for arraignment Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice for Alice Sharitz and her loved ones was long in coming, but it is here. It took DNA. It took genealogy. And it took the mindset of the SJPD and the DA\u2019s Cold Case Unit to never give up on a victim, ever,\u201d District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.<\/p>\n
San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph added in a statement: \u201cTime does not erase responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forensic examination, paired with a genealogical analysis, reportedly linked the toilet bowl phlegm to Contreras, who gave SJPD detectives a series of shifting alibis when they interviewed him at his home last June.<\/p>\n
Those accounts, summarized in a probable cause affidavit accompanying the murder charge, allegedly included Contreras blaming his wife \u2014 since deceased \u2014 for the killing after he confessed to having an affair with the octogenarian victim. Contreras was 47 when the homicide occurred.<\/p>\n
Sharitz was found dead the afternoon of Oct. 6, 1997, by a neighbor who was dropping off a card to her and found the front door ajar at her unit in the Boxer\u2019s Mayfair Village Senior Apartments. According to a Mercury News report from the time, the neighbor called for help, and was soon joined by another resident who described the apartment as having been ransacked.<\/p>\n
![\"Alice](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SJM-L-SHARITZ-0108-1.jpg\")
Alice Sharitz is shown in an undated photo. Sharitz was 84 years old when she was stabbed and beaten to death in 1997 in her San Jose apartment, and in 2025, San Jose police and Santa Clara County District Attorney investigators turned to DNA genealogy mapping to identify, arrest, and charge a suspect, 75-year-old Joe Angel Contreras. (San Jose Police Dept.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
A wooden-handled knife was sticking out of Sharitz\u2019s chest, and an autopsy would reveal she suffered two stab wounds and an array of injuries indicating she had been beaten, including rib, spine and neck fractures, and severe head trauma.<\/p>\n
Neighbors said Sharitz was last seen alive at a birthday party held two days earlier at the complex\u2019s recreation center. Another resident recalled talking to her on the phone the day before her body was found.<\/p>\n
Sharitz was remembered as being vivacious and active, and served as a club president in the tight-knit community. She had lived at the complex for about 18 years when she died. In 1997, Sharitz\u2019s neighbors told The Mercury News, \u201cShe might have been too friendly. You knock on the door, and she\u2019d let you in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police affirmed that her apartment had no signs of forced entry, and no clear sign that anything was stolen. But investigators discovered a lump of phlegm in the toilet bowl, and despite mainstream DNA analysis being in its relative infancy at the time, they collected the mass and preserved it.<\/p>\n
Even as DNA technology improved, for more than 20 years, the forensic sample did not turn anything up in existing criminal databases. Then in 2021, San Jose police and the county Crime Lab \u2014 run by the DA\u2019s office \u2014 submitted a DNA profile from the phlegm to Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs.<\/p>\n
In October 2024, the lab firm used genealogical mapping, in which unknown DNA is traced to relatives and ancestors to produce a more precise genetic profile and possible identity, to point to Contreras, according to the affidavit. Police reported that they obtained a sample of Contreras\u2019 DNA that December \u2014 aided by police in Dallas, Oregon \u2014 and matched it to the phlegm DNA.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce a suspect is identified with forensic genealogy, the investigation is far from over. It\u2019s only the beginning,\u201d said Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker, who leads his office\u2019s cold-case unit that revived the investigation alongside SJPD in 2020.<\/p>\n
During the June police interview in Oregon, Contreras initially told detectives he did not know Sharitz, then claimed an affair with her, and then asserted his now-deceased wife killed Sharitz after eluding his attempt to intervene. He also said that if his DNA was found on the knife, it was from trying to disarm his wife, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
The evolving explanation only cemented investigators\u2019 suspicion. SJPD Detective Christina Jize, who signed the affidavit and lists her co-investigators as SJPD Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez and DA Investigator John Cary, wrote: \u201cThis version of the story, like all the previous versions, did not explain the broken ribs, spinal fractures, fractures of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage, and extensive facial abrasions the victim suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone with information about the 1997 cold case can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283, or email Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez at 3934@sanjoseca.gov<\/a>\u00a0or Detective Christina Jize at\u00a04324@sanjoseca.gov<\/a>. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or\u00a0siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 The only forensic lead in the 1997 killing of 84-year-old Alice Sharitz \u2014 found lying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64753,237,25599,4691,29215,134,1331,64754,236,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-123911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alice-sharitz","tag-arrest","tag-cold-case","tag-contreras","tag-dna","tag-homicide","tag-murder","tag-phlegm","tag-police","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}