Body found at Santa Rosa home launches homicide investigation

Santa Rosa police launched a homicide investigation Thursday afternoon after finding a dead man who had been stabbed at a home near Coddingtown Mall.

The death appears suspicious, Santa Rosa Police Lt. Dan Marincik said, and investigators have not identified a suspect.

The discovery of the body came shortly before police received a 12:38 p.m. call from a woman who reported the death at the home, located in the 1000 block of Jennings Avenue near Cleveland Avenue, Marincik said. The woman, who was at the residence, said she believed the man was dead.

Marincik declined to say what relationship if any the woman had to the man or say if either lived at the home.

Police have a tentative identification for the man, who is 55, though they are working to confirm that information, Marincik said. The man's injuries are “consistent with a struggle,” Marincik said, declining to describe the wounds in greater detail. He would not say where the man was stabbed or how many times.

Crime tape stretched across the front of the white, single-story home about a block south of the Coddingtown Mall.