A 32-year-old Milpitas woman is accused of running down and killing her friend with her car on Friday in a bizarre incident that happened just before a third woman, also a friend, was found fatally stabbed.
Police in Milpitas are investigating a strange case in which a woman has now been charged with the murder of her friend and neighbor. As the Mercury News reports, Anila Baby, 32, was charged on Tuesday following an incident on Friday, August 28, at the apartment complex where she and her friend lived.
The incident happened around noon on Friday at the Mill Creek Apartments at 440 Dixon Landing Road. According to witnesses who spoke to police, 35-year-old Anjana Hari appeared "relaxed and smiling" as she approached her friend's SUV in the parking lot of the complex. Baby then allegedly accelerated from a complete stop when Hari was in front of the vehicle, running her over with the passenger side wheel, per the Mercury News. The car then sped away after reportedly "pinballing into several parked cars."
Responding police vehicles then spotted Baby's SUV driving recklessly minutes later, and then pulling into a Walgreens parking lot.
According to police, Baby had visible injuries, as well as blood on her arms and legs, and was incoherent as she sat in the vehicle. She was reportedly unable to answer questions.
The Mercury News report declines to offer any explanation for the blood seen on the suspect, but there appears to have been a second homicide on Friday, with the victim also being a close friend of the other two women.
KPIX reported on a fatal stabbing Friday in San Jose, in which a woman was found dead inside her home on Linda Vista Street around 1:53 pm. That woman has separately been identified as 40-year-old Ann Mary Mathew.
Indian publication The Federal reports that the three women were all Malayali, an ethnic group from Kerala in southern India, and that all three had lived at the same apartment complex in Milpitas — but Mathew had recently moved to San Jose.
According to a separate report from The Federal, Mathew's husband, having learned of the incident involving the other two women in Milpitas, tried to reach his wife by phone. When he couldn't, he rushed home and found her, dead from at least one stab wound.
"Authorities suspect Anila’s involvement in both killings, though the motive remains unclear," per The Federal.
Friends and family of the three women have reportedly said they did not know of any tensions between the friends, and Indian news media has reported that Baby was "mentally unwell" after suffering a recent job loss.
Police in Milpitas and San Jose have yet to officially connect the two homicides, and Anila Baby has only been charged with the murder of Anjana Hari.
She is being held in Santa Clara County's Main Jail without bail, per the Mercury News. She had an arraignment scheduled for Tuesday, but that has been postponed to September 10.
This is a developing story.
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