Heather Carroll, the Hollister woman whose body was discovered after a standoff in a Cerra Vista Drive home, died of strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to the Hollister Police Department.
David J. Quiroz, a 30-year-old Hollister man, is set for arraignment on a homicide charge in the case at a 2 p.m. Tuesday hearing at the San Benito County Courthouse.
Police released a statement Tuesday noting that Carroll, a 25-year-old Hollister mother and wife, was officially identified in the homicide. After a Monday autopsy, the coroner ruled her official cause of death as blunt force trauma and strangulation.
Interim Police Chief David Westrick on Tuesday afternoon declined to elaborate on the blunt force trauma factor and said he would discuss more details after the arraignment hearing.
Carroll went missing Wednesday after dropping off her young boy at Ladd Lane Elementary School. Her sport utility vehicle showed up – engulfed in flames – early Thursday morning near Enterprise Road and Glenview Drive. Police on Friday were on the way to question Quiroz, a family friend of the Carrolls, when someone called 911 reporting he was possibly suicidal and may have had a firearm.
After an 11-hour standoff – police said there was no firearm involved – Quiroz surrendered early Saturday morning at his home in the 2100 block of Cerra Vista Drive on Hollister’s southeast side. He directed investigators to Carroll’s body in the home. Police believe Quiroz killed her in the same residence.
