Man charged with killing wife at South San Jose home in troubling streak of domestic violence

Shede Mao, 55, has been charged with murder in the death of his wife at a South San Jose home, where he allegedly used a machete and dumbbells to kill her. The victim sent a friend a photo of her injuries before dying, and authorities uncovered a history of unreported domestic violence. Mao is being held without bail.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...SAN JOSE — A man has been charged with domestic violence and murder in the death of his wife at a South San Jose home early Monday https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/15/woman-killed-in-stabbing-at-south-san-jose-home/ , with his surrender and arrest triggered by the mortally injured victim reportedly sending a friend a photo of her final moments, according to authorities and court documents. Shede Mao, 55, is accused in a criminal complaint and police affidavit of using a machete and dumbbells to slash and bludgeon the 49-year-old victim, whose name had not been formally released by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office as of Wednesday. The investigation also revealed a history of unreported violent abuse by Mao against his wife, based on statements the victim’s adult son gave to detectives. Mao is being held without bail in the Santa Clara County Main Jail on a lone murder charge, records show. He was scheduled for arraignment Wednesday. The homicide was the second brutal suspected domestic-violence killing in the city in less than a week; four days earlier, a man was arrested on suspicion of stabbing his estranged wife in North San Jose while defying a protective order issued after he was charged with stalking her https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/17/man-charged-with-murdering-estranged-wife-while-facing-stalking-charge/ . According to San Jose police, around 12:45 a.m. Monday, the victim called and texted a female friend, which included sending a photo of herself on the ground — bleeding from her face, mouth and nose, with blood spattered on her clothing and the walls — and a location pin near Snell Avenue. That prompted the friend to call both the victim and Mao, with Mao answering the phone and asking the friend to call 911. During that call, the friend told police she could hear the victim, in a weak voice, ask for help and for something to drink. Mao, during the same call, reportedly rejected the victim’s reference to him as her husband. The friend then texted the photo to the victim’s son seeking help trying to locate her, and he directed them to the couple’s home. He would later tell police that he monitored the GPS signal of Mao’s phone, apparently out of suspicion spurred by a history of abuse by the defendant. Police responded to the home and were met by Mao, covered in blood, walking out of a side gate with holding his phone with his arms and hands raised above his head. He was immediately detained; officers entered the home — where Mao reportedly rented a room — and found the victim lying on the ground next to a bunk bed, unresponsive with visible head injuries, cuts to her right hand and a finger severed from her left hand. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Crime scene technicians called in to help execute a search warrant reported observing blood spattered all over Mao’s bedroom, and a machete and two dumbbells stained with blood. An examination of Mao revealed cuts on his head, hands, back and left Achilles’ heel, and blood stains on his feet. Detectives would later assert that during the course of the alleged attack, he took two photos and two short videos of the critically injured victim, all of which linked him to the time and location of the death. The investigation also cited accounts from the victim’s son, who told detectives that his mother married Mao in China a decade ago and that last October, Mao immigrated to Roseville to live with her, followed by Mao moving by himself to San Jose in February. The son also said Mao choked his mother in December in an assault that was not reported to police, and that when he was a child, he saw Mao threaten her with scissors. Sometime earlier this year, the son told detectives, his mother told Mao that she planned to divorce him. Mao’s roommate told police that on Sunday, about six hours before the fateful 911 call, he saw the two arguing heatedly in multiple instances at a shopping plaza at Blossom Hill Road and Snell Avenue, blocks from where Mao lived. The killing marked the San Jose’s 12th homicide of the year investigated by San Jose police, and the fourth to involve suspected domestic violence. A Washington Post report published earlier this month https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/06/06/homicide-rate-is-falling-domestic-killings-are-not/ found that domestic violence killings accounted for roughly 20% of homicides nationally in 2025, up from about 15% in 2020. That is in the face of a decrease of nearly 50% in the overall homicide rate over the same period, according to FBI figures. Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283, or email Detective Sgt. Rafael Varela at 3638@sanjoseca.gov mailto:3638@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Jose Montoya at 3644@sanjoseca.gov mailto:3644@sanjoseca.gov . Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org http://siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org/ .