The cold case investigation led to an arrest in 1987 by strangulation

SAN JOSE — The strangulation death of a man inside an apartment near Kelley Park nearly four decades ago now has a suspect, who has been arrested and charged following a cold case investigation that matched his DNA with evidence from the unsolved homicide, authorities said. .

Joseph Anthony Abeyta, 55, of San Jose, was charged with murder Friday in connection with the 1987 slaying of Jesus Ibarra, 45, on Nordale Avenue.

A revived investigation by the Santa Clara District Attorney and the San Jose Police Department’s homicide unit linked DNA from crime scene evidence to Abeyta. He was already being held at the county jail on a pending weapons charge and violating his parole supervision from previous convictions in 2019.

Abeyta was due to be arraigned on Friday for the murder. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

According to investigators, family members discovered Ibarra’s body covered by a blanket and with a yellow electrical cord wrapped around his neck in his Nordale Avenue apartment on April 22, 1987. He had not been seen for at least three days. The death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy concluded she died of blunt force trauma to her neck and also had multiple rib fractures.

While Abeyta knew Ibarra — a machinist and sheet metal worker — neither he nor anyone else was identified as a suspect during the initial investigation. Authorities would later learn that Abeyta lived on Peach Court, three miles north of the crime scene and a block away from where Ibarra’s burned car was found — the day before he was killed.