A well-known acupuncturist killed this summer was stabbed 41 times in her Palo Alto home by her sister-in-law, officials allege in court records released this week.

Jenny Shi, 65, was found lying on her back in a rear bedroom on July 7 in a pool of blood, records show. She had more than three dozen stab wounds on her chest, neck, face, back and some smaller cuts on her hands.

On Wednesday, Shi’s sister-in-law, Jingyan Jin, is set to be arraigned on one count of murder in connection with her stabbing death, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities arrested Jin, 41, last week at her Palo Alto home.


At the crime scene, investigators found Jin’s DNA on a window and privacy screen, which had been removed and found lying in a bathtub in Shi’s home, according to a statement of facts filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Police think Jin slipped through the window to enter Shi’s home in the 300 block of Creekside Drive and killed her. Shi’s business associate and bookkeeper went looking for her at her home after she failed to show up for an appointment. The pair and two others entered Shi’s home and found her dead inside her locked bedroom.

Jin had made a series of threat against her husband and had gotten in argument with her sister-in-law in the last year, Det. Eric Bulatao wrote in the statement of facts.

She had drugged her husband’s cup of tea with Benadryl and threatened him with a stun gun and knife, the detective said.


Then in September, Jin was arrested in China after she got in to a fight with Shi’s business employee.

She was found with plastic gloves and a knife after trying to break in to the employee’s apartment, according to Bulatao.

Shi earned a degree from the Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She was co-president of Keiretsu Forum Bureau In Beijing, an investment group, according to her profile on the company’s website. She owned seven acupuncture clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her brother, James Shi, owns and operates a hospital in Beijing.


veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.