Authorities issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for the mother of a 2-month-old San Jose boy who died in April after having been repeatedly hit in the head, while being left severely malnourished and dehydrated.
San Jose police are seeking Yvyi Yan, 29, on suspicion of murder in the April 4 death of her son, Charles Zheng. His death was declared a homicide this month after the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office finalized a report showing the infant suffered from “combined effects of blunt force injuries of head, severe malnourishment and dehydration,” according to the boy’s death certificate.
Yan also is suspected of assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death, a felony, court records show.
Investigators suspect Yan was the only person to have cared for the infant from March 23 until April 4 — a nearly two-week stretch that ended with Yan texting the boy’s father a request to buy cold medicine for the child, court documents show.
Included with the request was a picture of Charles, who looked “abnormal and skinny,” according to court documents.
Frightened about the boy’s appearance, the boy’s father told investigators that he rushed to Yan’s San Jose apartment and found the boy on the couch wearing a blue and green onesie with a dragon design on it. The boy’s skin took on a “green and white” hue, and he appeared “unreal,” according to court records.
The boy’s head still felt warm to the touch, the father told police, so he drove the boy and his mother to the hospital.
The man told investigators that he broke up with Yan in June 2022 and last saw Charles on March 23. On that day, the father fed baby formula to Charles, who appeared “healthy,” court documents say.
The child’s cause of death wasn’t declared until Dec. 8, when the county Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office finalized its autopsy and death investigation and ruled the child’s death a homicide. In the process, the agency noted that Charles was the “victim of repeated child abuse and neglect,” according to the boy’s death certificate.
It’s unclear whether anyone else saw Charles before his death. The only clue that authorities revealed about the boy’s short life with his mother came in a conversation that investigators had with a woman who regularly exchanged Chinese currency with Yan. Both Yan, as well as the boy’s father, are listed on the child’s death certificate as having been from China.
The woman said Yan owed her $900. Yet when the woman inquired about that debt on March 9, Yan replied that she couldn’t pay at the moment because she’d had a baby. Yan also sent the woman a picture of the child, along with several statements in Chinese that the woman interpreted as “want to kill him” and “mommy is tired.”
A Santa Clara County spokesperson said there were no prior child-welfare referrals involving the child, and that “the first connection with DFCS for this child and for this family was (a) referral at the time of the infant’s tragic death.”
Charles’ death marked the 34th homicide of the year investigated by San Jose police.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
