When San Jose detectives were called to a South Bay hospital in early April to investigate the death of a 2-month-old boy, they faced an uncomfortable twist.
The child’s mother, Yuqi Yan, had an active warrant for her arrest after she allegedly skipped out on a felony court date a couple months earlier. And confronted with the prospect of jailing her that evening, the detectives decided to let her remain free.
Now, San Jose police are seeking Yan on a new warrant filed this week — one accusing the woman of murdering her infant son, Charles Zheng. It follows a determination by Santa Clara’s medical examiner on Dec. 8 that the boy’s death was a homicide, citing how the child endured “repeated abuse and neglect” and died of the “combined effects of blunt force injuries of head, severe malnourishment and dehydration.”
The search for Yan, 29, comes amid rampant speculation on Chinese social media accounts in recent months about whether the woman fled back to China — the county where she was born — in the days and weeks after police began investigating her son’s death. The boy’s death became an online sensation in China in May — spurring countless TikTok videos and articles analyzing the boy’s death, even as the San Jose Police Department’s investigation ground on for months in relative secrecy here in the Bay Area.
At the time of Charles’ death on April 4, Yan had been wanted on a $25,000 bench warrant for not showing up for a mid-February court hearing on a felony charge of theft of personal property of a value over $950.
Police suspect Yan stole more than $2,200 in clothing and other merchandise on Dec. 16 from a Nordstrom in San Jose. Security guards at the store said they spotted Yan stuffing shorts, shirts and pants into a large tote bag before trying to leave without paying, according to court documents. She declined to speak to officers that evening, saying only “I want to keep silence,” records show.
She was ordered to appear in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Feb. 16, but records show she never showed up.
A statement from the San Jose Police Department said that the officers’ initial investigation found “no indication that a crime had occurred.” Further, officers “did not think it appropriate to arrest at the time,” citing “empathy for the loss of a child,” as well as the expectation that she could be released within 24 to 48 hours of her booking.
“Child deaths are extremely complicated,” the department’s statement said, adding that “these investigations rely heavily on the Coroner’s office reports and findings.”
The department declined to comment on Yan’s potential whereabouts.
An affidavit filed recently by San Jose police did not specifically say whether officers interviewed Yan after she appeared at Valley Medical Center with her son on the evening of April 4.
Instead, the detective’s affidavit focused largely on an account provided by the boy’s father, who had broken up with Yan in 2022, and who had last seen the child living and healthy nearly two weeks before Charles’ death.
The man told police that he was summoned to Yan’s apartment on April 4 with a request to buy cold medicine for their child. She included a picture of Charles, who appeared “abnormal and skinny,” court documents said. When he arrived, the boy’s skin had taken on a “green and white” hue, and the child 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 Valley Medical Center in San Jose. When they arrived, the child was swaddled in a blanket and wearing an unzipped onesie, yet appeared “stiff” and showed “no signs of life” at that point, the records said.
The child’s death was reported that night to police by hospital staff.
Police later determined that Yan was the only person to care for the child from March 23 through April 4.
The only other 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.”
