Cold case unit solves another murder: opens public hotline

For release on October 26, 2023

CONTACT:
Rob Baker
Deputy District Attorney
Cold Case Unit
[email protected]

Cold case unit solves another murder: opens public hotline
 

Victim Elena “Estella” Mena

As it solves more and more cases through genealogy, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Cold Case Unit has opened a hotline so that the public can send in information about old and unsolved murders.

If a member of the public has information to share, they can anonymously call (408) 792-2466 or email [email protected].

Since 2018, the DA’s Office Cold Case Unit has solved 16 cold case homicides and 10 sexual assaults.  Four of those murders were solved with the use of forensic genealogy. This includes – most recently – the 1979 attempted rape and murder of a security guard in Sunnyvale. The killer in that case died in 2008.

The Office has also released a video that profiles the unit and a case that they are working on.

“There is no statute of limitations on murder or our attention. We never forget,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “We don’t forget the crime or the criminals. We don’t forget the victims, ever.”

The team is comprised of a prosecutor, criminalist, and two DA investigators. The unit works with every local agency in the county as well as the FBI.

DA Rosen formed the CCU in January 2011 to examine the backlog of homicide cases that the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the case deemed “cold,” which meant the case went unsolved for more than three years since the date of the crime or the date of discovery. From 2011 through 2019, the CCU solved 12 cold case homicides.

Elena Mena, known to her friends and family as Estella, 18-years-old, was working as a security guard at a Sunnyvale office building on Saturday Oct. 27, 1979. She was stabbed to death during an attempted sexual assault. An office worker interrupted the attack, causing the suspect to flee. Her killer remained unidentified until a DNA analysis in 2023 by the Santa Clara County Crime Lab. The lab developed a DNA profile from foreign blood on Elena’s shoes and clothing that resulted in a DNA database hit. 

Sam Silva, 2007 Booking Photo

The killer was Colorado resident Sam Silva, 18-years-old at the time. He was staying with family members in this county at the time of the killing and may have met Mena previously when they both worked at Great America. After the killing, he fled back to Colorado. He has a criminal history of manslaughter, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, rape, and firearms offenses.

Silva’s DNA was collected and uploaded to the DNA database known as CODIS in 2006 and he died two years later while in prison for federal gun charges.

DNA technology was not sufficiently developed to identify him before he died.

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