Boyfriend arrested after woman found dead

Hayward police Chief Diane Urban said Monday the boyfriend of a San Jose woman whose body was found on Saturday has been arrested on suspicion of a domestic violence charge related to her but declined to say if he’s a suspect in her death.

Speaking at a crowded news conference at police headquarters, Urban said the boyfriend of 22-year-old Stacey Aguilar was arrested on Feb. 16, three days after Aguilar was last seen at a party near the corner of Silva Avenue and Jackson Street in Hayward at about 11 a.m. on Feb. 13.

Aguilar’s family reported her missing on Feb. 16, the day her boyfriend was arrested, and Hayward detectives found her body in a rural area off of Morrison Canyon Road in Fremont at about noon on Saturday, Urban said.

A person of interest in Aguilar’s death is in custody on an unrelated charge but Urban said police won’t identify that person until he’s charged by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. She declined to say if Aguilar’s boyfriend is the person of interest.

But Urban said police are “very confident” that the person of interest is “the right person” who’s responsible for Aguilar’s death.

She said:

“The people in the community can sleep at night knowing there’s not a murderer on the loose.”

Urban said police interviewed Aguilar’s boyfriend after she disappeared “along with a multitude of other people.” Urban said police believe Aguilar was killed in Hayward before her body was disposed of in Fremont.

She said the Alameda County coroner’s bureau has preliminarily classified Aguilar’s death as a homicide and found she suffered numerous gunshot wounds, although the official cause of death is still pending.

Police originally treated Aguilar’s disappearance as a missing person case but on Friday they reclassified it as a homicide even though her body hadn’t yet been found.

Urban said Monday that police did so because “the evidence indicated that this was something more than a missing person case” but declined to elaborate.

She said police are still investigating Aguilar’s death and haven’t yet submitted their case to the District Attorney’s Office to file charges.

Sgt. Ryan Cantrell said police received calls about noise at the party where Aguilar was last seen alive but didn’t get calls about a homicide at the party.

Cantrell said Aguilar’s death is the third homicide in Hayward so far this year.