Google Engineer Brutally Beaten To Death, Husband Found 'Spattered With Blood': Police

Police officers performing a welfare check last week at the home of married Google software engineers found a man spattered with blood near the brutally beaten body of his wife, authorities said.

Liren Chen, 27, has been charged with the murder of his 27-year-old wife, the Santa Clara District Attorneys Office said in a statement . Authorities did not identify the victim, but public records and her employer have confirmed that she is Xuanyi Yu.

When officers arrived at the couples home at around 11 a.m. on Jan. 16, a friend told authorities Chen was refusing to answer his phone or his door, but he could see him motionless on his knees with his hands in the air and staring blankly.

Officers said they found Yus body on the bedroom floor directly behind where Chen was standing when they arrested him. She had suffered severe blunt force injuries to her head, authorities said.

Chens right hand was extremely swollen and purple, the district attorneys office said. He had blood on his clothing, legs, arms, and hands and scratches on his arm, and was hospitalized after his arrest.

The couple purchased their Santa Clara house for just over $2 million in April 2023, according to property records. Both had worked for several years as software engineers at Google , according to their LinkedIn profiles, with Chen joining in 2020 and Yu a year later.

Both Chen and Yu attended Tsinghua University in Beijing and received their masters degrees in computer science from the University of California before joining Google, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

We are shocked and deeply saddened by what has happened to Xuanyi, Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson said in a statement shared with HuffPost. Our thoughts are with her family at this time, and we are working to provide support to them and to co-workers who are processing this tragic news.

Court records do not specify whether Chen has retained an attorney yet to represent him.

Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen encouraged people who are being abused by their partners to contact police, noting the rise in domestic violence 911 calls. You are not alone. We can help.

Domestic violence deaths have been falling in our county, Rosen said, but that does not measure the depth and destructiveness of the violence.

Chens arraignment, which was postponed because he was hospitalized, is currently scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline .