Google engineer charged with wife’s murder in US, was found ‘spattered with blood’

A Google software engineer has been charged with murder in Santa Clara, California, after he allegedly thrashed his wife to death, and was found “spattered with blood” at their home.

In a statement, Santa Clara police said that officers found 27-year-old Liren Chen standing in the bedroom, with his wife’s body lying behind him on the floor.

She had severe blunt force injuries to her head and Chen’s right hand was “extremely swollen and purple”. Police also said that he had blood on his clothing, arms, legs, and hands, along with scratches on his arm.

The officers discovered the attack scene after they responded to a 911 call from an acquaintance of Liren Chen on a home located at Valley Way on January 16 around 11 am (local time). He (the acquaintance) expressed concern about Liren Chen and his wife – who was also a Google engineer.

He said that Chen was refusing to answer his phone or his door. He also said that he could see Chen inside his home “motionless on his knees” with his “hands in the air” and “staring blankly”.

Liren Chen faces prison, if convicted, Santa Clara police said. His arraignment has been postponed as he remains hospitalised.

Fox News Digital reported that Google confirmed to them Liren Chen and his wife, Xuanyi Yu, were employees at the tech giant at the time of incident.

A spokesperson for the company told the news portal that they are “shocked and deeply saddened” by what happened to Xuanyi Yu. The spokesperson also assured providing support to her family and co-workers “who are processing this tragic news”.

Both Liren Chen and Xuanyi Yu studied in China’s Tsinghua University, and at the University of California, San Diego, according to their LinkedIn pages.