back to article Google product boss cuffed on suspicion of murder after his Microsoft manager wife goes missing, woman's body found, during Hawaii trip

Sonam Saxena, a product manager at Google Cloud, was arrested in Hawaii this week on suspicion of second-degree murder. The Hawaii Police Department said Saxena, 43, was cuffed in conjunction with an investigation into the death of a woman, who was found Wednesday morning near Anaehoomalu Bay in the district of South Kohala on …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

    I don't think so. In these times of austerity, and belt tightening one must no succumb to the temptation to become just another tabloid rag.

    1. ukgnome

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      You're maybe haven't been here long.

      There is a reason the top of the page is red.

      And, yes this is newsworthy, yes it is related to tech companies. It might not be a story about the latest windows vulnerability (bad choice of words, my bad) but that doesn't mean it should be on here. Are you only after the stories that are less human?

      1. Tom 7

        Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

        How about newest widowers vulnerability?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

          Conflicted.

          Too soon. Funny.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      I think El Reg has done good job of sticking to the facts as they are presented without descending to the depths of true Red-Top journalism.

      For my part, I found it informative about how Microsoft and Google have similar cloudy roles but are not so paranoid about eachother that a couple couldn't each be working for the other's 'enemy'.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      You do realize you're validating that strategy by reading and commenting on the article, right?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      I'm fine with them announcing newly opened job positions at MS and Google.

      1. Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?

        Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

        Seriously? I get that you're desperate to be an edgelord and all, but take shitty comments like that to 4chan where they belong.

        If he did it, murder is no laughing matter. If he didn't, then grief is no laughing matter. Either way, two young girls have lost their mother and that will hugely affect them for the rest of their lives.

        I sincerely hope that you never have to deal with any emotional trauma even slightly like this.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

          The old adage is that comedy = tragedy + time. Just what the lower bound on time should be accepted is something that varies wildly per person; for some that lower bound happens to be zero(which doesn't necessarily imply callousness).

      2. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
        Terminator

        Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

        Hmm I tyhink you missed the deadpan humour alert. That, or your empathy and good-taste chips have been bypassed.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

          He's just trying to get a reiser out of you

          1. Chairman of the Bored

            Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

            The maybe spank IT?

      3. This post has been deleted by its author

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      >belt tightening one must no succumb to the temptation to become just another tabloid rag.

      I'm glad the Reg is a tabloid rag, it's why we are all here. Many centuries ago when I was a young paperboy delivering to the poshest houses in my area, they all loved a copy of the News of The Screws delivered with their Sunday Times or Observer, so please put your snobbery away, you know you really love the gutter.

    6. deadlockvictim

      Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

      El Reg's core mission is the enrichment of the planet with the most groanworthy puns and cleverest wordplays in their headlines and subheads.

      Alas, tech-related tragedies also play their part.

      Google employees are all-too-human too.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sad yes, but is this really pat of El Reg's core mission?

        "Google employees are all-too-human too."

        I guess that depends on your definition of human. How much borg to human ratio are you willing to accept before they are no longer human?

  2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    "so that I can tell my daughters where their Mom is."

    That would be the only reason, for sure, to "find" your own wife.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Why "tell them where their Mom is" and not "bring their mother back home" ?

      Did he already know she wasn't coming back ?

      1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

        This seems to be a fairly common mistake killers* make when trying to appear traumatised by the disappearance. They aren't genuinely traumatised, so don't usually think like someone who is and little (or not so little) signals begin to slip through the facade.

        *Yes I know this one hasn't been proven. Just making a generalisation.

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          At least it's a common thing in TV thrillers and in some high profile missing persons cases.

        2. Paul Kinsler

          Verbal signals?

          BBC4/ Word of Mouth/ "Real Talk"

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dy62

          1. John H Woods Silver badge

            Re: Verbal signals?

            See also Tears of a Crime

            It's amazing how obvious the little tells are once the experts point them out...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Verbal signals?

              Yeah, its almost as convincing as those AI results that use contrived training data.

          2. Sherrie Ludwig
            Pint

            Re: Verbal signals?

            You sent me down a rabbit hole of three great BBC programmes on verbal communication with that link. Thank you! Raising one to you, sir.

  3. Warm Braw

    She had vanished

    I'd be very surprised if a "business program manager for cloud licensing and monetization" ever turns her phone off, so vanishing is a difficult trick to pull off.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: She had vanished

      This plus I never met someone with asthma going anywhere without their inhaler ....

      The dude is clearly in a bad position ...

      1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

        Re: She had vanished

        It can happen (my girlfriend does so occassionally), depends on severity, but I agree it's generally unlilkely.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: She had vanished

        “ I never met someone with asthma going anywhere without their inhaler ....”

        I’m a former Paramedic and also asthmatic.

        I regularly went out for emergency calls where someone had forgotten an inhaler And was having an attack. I also find myself going to my pocket for mine only to realise is still on my bedside cabinet (nightstand for our occidental readers).

        It happens way more than you realise.

      3. Charlie Clark Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: She had vanished

        It's happened to me.

    2. Jedit Silver badge
      Holmes

      I'd be very surprised if a <job title> ever turns her phone off

      If my spouse worked for Google in a senior position and I wanted to get out, the very first thing I'd do would be turn my phone off. Google are not shy about slurping location data, after all.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: She had vanished

      And no one is ever outside coverage?

      Hell, if I lose power or Internet connectivity and my microcell can't run, my phone's off the network here at the Mountain Fastness.

  4. 9Rune5
    Trollface

    Conclusion: Don't marry a googler

    Based on a _mountain_ of evidence, such as this story here: https://theregister.co.uk/2020/01/10/alphabet_drummond_quits/

    ...I think it is safe to conclude that young attractive women should not consort with anyone employed by google. They are much better off seeking out the warm embrace of bald middle-aged Norwegian dudes.

    Because statistics.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Conclusion: Don't marry a googler

      Even if they don't kill their wife, they can be killed by a prostitute - because their life with a wife and five children is too boring:

      https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/10/woman_charged_google_exec_death/

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maps

    Was she relying on Apple maps?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Look like an Hawai Five-0 episode

    Plenty of opportunities to product place MS kit .

  7. Noonoot

    Well done The Register for not ignoring the question of feminicide in the world

    It might not be there core mission but.......

    http://femicide-watch.org/products/2019-study-global-homicide-gender-related-killings-women-and-girls-unodc

    "Killings by intimate partners or family members 2017: A total of 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017. More than half of them (58 per cent) ̶ 50,000 ̶ were killed by intimate partners or family members. This means that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day. This amounts to some six women being killed every hour by people they know."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well done The Register for not ignoring the question of feminicide in the world

      There are around 1000 people a day dying of asthma. That’s over 40 people every hour.

      Nobody is doubting the impact of femicide globally, but congratulations on belittling the impact of a disease that kills without concern of race, age or gender. Let’s not pre judge this case or would you rather be judge and jury before the facts?

    2. Dog11
      Holmes

      Re: Well done The Register for not ignoring the question of feminicide in the world

      Most people who are killed, are killed by people they know. Killers are far less likely to have a beef (real or imaginary) with strangers. I don't doubt that women come out on the wrong side of killings by intimate partners/family members, though.

      1. Stevie

        Re: Well done The Register for not ignoring the question of feminicide in the world

        Feminicide: The act of killing a woman's sub-compact car.

  8. IGnatius T Foobar !

    Google and Microsoft

    ...two companies who both think they're above the law, so why not throw some conventional crime into the mix?

  9. a_yank_lurker

    Evidence?

    Obvious the plods are not releasing details or at least all the details. I am not sure how they determined it was a homicide without information from the autopsy being released. What most fail to realize is in any suspicious death the ME and the plods will be looking for details that confirm or deny the story they have. And there is a lot little details that can contradict a plausible sounding story either from the scene or the autopsy.

    1. Stevie

      Re: Evidence?

      Who fails to realize this in an age of Law and Order, CSI and NCIS?

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Evidence?

      "I am not sure how they determined it was a homicide without information from the autopsy being released."

      To some extent it's their job to assume the worst. At the very least a missing person is something to be investigated as is a sudden death once the body turns up. As there is at least the possibility of homicide arresting the most likely suspect would be a precaution. Note also that he was released, suggesting that until the full PM results are in it's an open case.

  10. Anonymous Crowbar
    Joke

    He should know the best place to hide a body is page two of Google search results. No one ever goes there.

    1. Archivist

      Sad but true

      It is

  11. skeptical i
    Unhappy

    So sad for the kids

    This has got to be a colossal mindf*ck for them, I hope they can get into therapy and find some sort of solace. The world is hard enough without this kind of tragedy. Peace unto them and the rest of the family.

  12. Danny 2

    Televised suicide by steam powered rocket

    On the subject of dodgy media coverage, the Science Channel just broadcast the predictable death of Mad Mike Hughes.

    He was trying to prove the Earth is flat, and he certainly made it a little bit flatter.

  13. Demosthenes Locke

    Come ON, Googlers, can we PLEASE go back to "Don't Be Evil" now? Seriously?

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