Missing Utah Woman Erin Valenti Found Dead in Car, Family Says

Missing Utah woman Erin Valenti. (San Jose Police Department)

A missing Utah woman who police said disappeared voluntarily was found dead in her car, family members said over the weekend.

Erin Valenti, a 33-year-old CEO of Tinker Ventures, was “deceased in her vehicle in San Jose,” California, on Saturday, her family said on Facebook.

“Erin has been found. Please call off the search. We all greatly appreciate the effort and support people have provided. The family will release more information as they are able to,” the statement said.

On the “Help Find Erin Valenti” Facebook page, her family said, “Many of you have seen that the search for Erin has been called off. While we were praying for a different outcome, we are so appreciative for the help and support you have given.”

“Please remember Erin as the beautiful, smart, funny woman that she was. I don’t have any details that have not been in the media. I’m sure that Harrison will thank you himself when he is able, but please be patient,” the post read.

According to CBS San Francisco, her car was found in the 6500 block of Bose Lane in San Jose.

Her family previously said that she sounded “confused and disjointed” when she was driving through San Jose instead of to the airport to go home to Utah, the report said.

Her husband, Harrison Weinstein, said the incident was “extremely out of character.”

She had made a number of unusual statements to her family over the phone, including “it’s all a game, it’s a thought experiment, we’re in the Matrix,” reported the San Jose Mercury News.

Weinstein said she had no history of mental health issues.

“We talked to her for hours on and off” on Monday night, a family member also told the Mercury News. “Her thoughts were disconnected. She talked a mile a minute. She’d say I’m coming home for Thanksgiving, then in the next she was saying she’s in the Matrix.”

Missing Children

There were 424,066 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2018, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement they must be entered into the database. In 2017, there were 464,324 entries.

“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center notes on its website.

“Unfortunately, since many children are never reported missing, there is no reliable way to determine the total number of children who are actually missing in the U.S.,” NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) added.

In 2018, the center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 25,000 missing children. In those cases, 92 percent were endangered runaways, and 4 percent were family abductions.

The center said that it participates in the Amber Alert Program, which is a voluntary partnership between numerous entities including broadcasters, transportation agencies, and law enforcement agencies. The Amber Alert Program issues urgent bulletins in the most serious child abduction cases.

According to the NCMEC, to date, 941 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the Amber Alert Program.

The center notes that of the more than 23,500 runaways reported in 2018, about one in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking.