Milpitas Woman Charged In Murder of Second Friend

A Milpitas woman who was arrested two weeks ago for allegedly mowing down her neighbor and friend with her car has now been charged with a second killing of a woman who was also her friend.

Anila Baby, 32, was already facing a murder charge as of last week following a bizarre incident on August 28 in the parking lot of the Milpitas apartment complex where she lived. Baby is accused of intentionally running over and killing her friend and neighbor, 35-year-old Anjana Hari, before driving off erratically and then being arrested by police.

At the time, police said they found her behind the wheel covered in blood and speaking incoherently, and news outlets from India, where the women were from, were already linking a second murder to Baby, that of her 39-year-old friend Ann Mary Mathew, who was found dead in her San Jose home the same day.

Baby has now been charged with Mathew's murder, as the Mercury News reports, and she was arraigned Thursday on both counts. Baby reportedly remained silent in the courtroom and did not enter a plea. Her attorney, Shawn George, also did not comment on the case, and she is scheduled for another hearing on November 17.

Baby's mental state will likely be an issue in the case, and those Indian media sources had cited statements from friends and family that suggested Baby had been experiencing depression, or some sort of mental health crisis, following the loss of a job.

Mathew was reportedly strangled and suffered blunt-force trauma as well as stab wounds. She was found in a pool of blood by her husband, who reportedly rushed home after being unable to reach her after he heard about the hit-and-run involving her friends in Milpitas.

Prosecutors appear to have plenty of evidence linking Baby to both murders, including eyewitnesses at the apartment complex where the alleged hit-and-run occurred. Investigators said that Baby had apparently called Hari on the phone to tell her to come out to speak to her, and witnesses described Hari as "smiling" and relaxed as she approached her friend's car.

Per the Mercury News, investigators have DNA evidence linking Baby to Mathew's killing, and also tracked Baby's cellphone location to Mathew's home on the morning of August 28, and Mathew's cellphone, which was missing from the murder scene, was found in Baby's car.

Additionally, prosecutors say, it appears that motion-activated camera footage from the doorway of Mathew's home was intentionally deleted, with clips that had been recorded at 10:37 am and 11:35 am that day.

All three woman were said to be close friends who all came from the southern Indian state of Kerala. They were all reportedly Malayali, members of an ethnic group from the region, and Mathew had lived in the same complex, the Mill Creek Apartments, before moving recently with her husband to nearby San Jose.

"The number one question that investigators are working on right now is: Why would a woman kill her two best friends in the middle of the morning in cold blood?” said Deputy District Attorney Marisa McKeown, after the court hearing, speaking to the Mercury News. “Both women were mothers. They are residents of our community and they and their families are suffering terribly from the ultimate question of, why would someone do this?"

Previously: Milpitas Woman Allegedly Runs Over, Kills Friend, Possible Link to Death of Second Friend