A man who San Jose police say is responsible for the brutal killing of an elderly woman back in 1997 has been arrested, the department announced Wednesday.
Oregon resident Joe Contreras, now 75, allegedly killed 84-year-old Alice Sharitz inside her San Jose home on Oct. 6, 1997, police said. Thanks to advances in forensic science, authorities eventually identified Contreras as the suspect in the homicide and arrested him in Oregon last month.
Police said Sharitz and Contreras had been in a dating relationship but didn’t provide specifics.
Police initially responded to Sharitz’s home on the 40 block of North Jackson Avenue early in the afternoon on Oct. 6, 1997, after a neighbor called 911 to report that Sharitz’s front door was open and she was on the ground.
Responding officers found Sharitz, who lived alone, lying on her living room floor with a knife stuck in her chest and visible abrasions on both knees, police said.
Sharitz suffered two stab wounds to her chest, multiple fractures, injuries to her neck and numerous facial abrasions, an autopsy determined. Her cause of death was determined to be multiple traumatic injuries, according to police.
Investigators processed the crime scene and collected DNA, preserving it as potential evidence, but the case eventually went cold, police said.
In 2021, a male DNA profile developed from the DNA gathered at the crime scene was sent off for advanced forensic genetic genealogy analysis, police said. Three years later, Contreras was identified as the potential source of that DNA. Authorities in Dallas, Oregon, collected a DNA sample from Contreras, and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Crime Laboratory later confirmed that the DNA profile from the crime scene matched that of Contreras.
San Jose police detectives and an investigator from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Unit traveled to Oregon, interviewed Contreras extensively and ultimately determined that he was responsible for Sharitz’s death.
“A team of resolute and creative investigators just solved the 27-year-old murder of a senior citizen,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Justice 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’s Cold Case Unit to never give up on a victim, ever.”
Contreras was arrested on Dec. 19, 2025, and extradited back to San Jose on Tuesday, police said. He was subsequently booked into jail for murder.
“Time does not erase responsibility,” San Jose police Chief Paul Joseph said in a statement. “And thanks to the relentless work of our Homicide Unit and the District Attorney’s Cold Case Unit, it never will.”
