San Jose: Woman arrested Monday on suspicion of arson, murder

SAN JOSE — Police arrested a woman Monday on suspicion of murder and arson for allegedly setting fire to a commercial building with an employee inside, authorities said.

Yessenia Estrada, a 35-year-old resident of San Jose, allegedly started the second-alarm blaze early Sunday morning, according to a press release from the San Jose Police Department. Authorities located a deceased person in the burned building Monday. The victim’s identity had not been released by the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office at the time of this writing.

Just before 4 a.m. Sunday, police and firefighters responded to reports of a fire at a commercial building on the 200 block of North 27th Street, authorities said. Initial reports said that a fence was on fire and the blaze was extending to the roof of the two-story structure, said Jake Pisani, public information manager for the San Jose Fire Department.

The blaze was upgraded to a first alarm fire at 4:01 a.m. and a second alarm fire at 4:04 a.m., Pisani said. The first engine that arrived on scene described the fire as “a large fully involved structure with multiple exposures,” he added. The fire was knocked down at 6:06 a.m.

Upon their arrival, police found that the fire was likely caused by arson, SJPD said.

An initial investigation found that an employee who was thought to be inside the structure at the time of the fire was unaccounted for, but a search could not initially be conducted because of structural instability, authorities said. Estrada was identified as the suspect, and officers received a warrant for her arrest.

Following her arrest Monday, Estrada was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail, police said.

The incident was jointly investigated by San Jose Fire Department arson investigators and SJPD homicide officers, police said.

This marks San Jose’s 14th homicide of the year. Anyone with further information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Ivan Barragan #4106 or Detective Harrington #4365 at 4106@sanjoseca.gov or 4365@sanjoseca.gov. They can also be reached by phone at 408-277-5283.

Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this report.