Police investigate the scene where Donna House was found.
A devoted husband's frantic, two-day search for his missing wife ended with the discovery that she took her own life in a Morgan Hill strip mall parking lot.
Jim House will remember his 44-year-old wife, Madonna House - who went by Donna - as a beautiful mother, wife and best friend.
"She was under a tremendous amount of stress," Jim House said. "She was like a little pack of dynamite. She'd put the Energizer Bunny to shame."
Monday morning, Donna House shared a quick cigarette and cup of coffee with her husband, told him she loved him and set off for the Mineta San Jose International Airport. She was scheduled to fly to San Diego as part of her work as a regional remodeling specialist for Target. She said she would call when she got to the airport, but never did, setting off a search by her husband and family.
Wednesday afternoon, a stylist at the Vanity Hair Salon in the strip mall at 15145 Monterey St. in south Morgan Hill found a woman's body in the front seat of a dark grey 2008 Honda Accord that had been parked outside the salon since Monday. The mall is at the southwest corner of Monterey Street and John Wilson Way. The stylist was too rattled to call police and asked a co-worker to call 911. Police received the call about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday.
"I had never seen a dead body," said Colleen Parish, the stylist who found the body. "My stomach kind of just knew something was wrong and I thought I should immediately call 911."
The woman was lying on her back in a fully reclined driver's seat, Parish said. Parish also saw a bullet hole in the car's rear driver's-side door.
Police would not comment on the location of the bullet, its casing or the gunshot wound. Police also would not say if they found a gun in the car. The owner of Vanity Hair Salon and an employee at Rapunzel's hair salon in the same strip mall said they didn't see the body.
Morgan Hill police and the Santa Clara County Coroner's office confirmed Thursday afternoon that the woman was Donna House. The coroner's office will not release the cause of death, including whether foul play can be ruled out, until the investigation is closed, which may be next week, said an office spokesperson.
But Jim House said he knows the truth.
"It was a suicide," he said.
Jim House spent two days scouring the parking lots of the San Jose Airport, Gilroy city streets and many places in between.
"I don't know how I didn't find her car," he said Thursday. "I drove down that road about 2 o'clock yesterday. It was by the grace of God I didn't find it."
"What's so hard about this is that she was so strong," he added, his voice catching.
Jim House said the gun he kept at their Devon Place home is missing.
"It was my gun," he said. "When the coroner asked me, I thought 'Oh my God, not my own gun.' I'm just numb."
Donna and Jim House were high school sweethearts, had been happily married for 25 years and recently welcomed their second grandchild into the world. They have a grown daughter and a 13-year-old son.
Donna House took nearly two dozen pills each day, including painkillers, anti-seizure medication and medicine to keep her blood pressure down, Jim House said.
"We had a pharmacy in our medicine cabinet upstairs," he said. Several days ago, his wife told him she had run out of "a bunch of medication." He did not know the specific brands of her medications.
After a day of not hearing from his wife and a sleepless night, Jim House notified the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department - he and his wife also own Caffe Florian, a Los Gatos coffee shop - of her disappearance along with several media agencies with the help of his family.
"I would like to say to the media I really appreciate them getting her picture out all over the place," Jim House said. "We're not famous, not movie stars or anything. I never thought it would end like this. We were so terrified that this was an accident or that she had been abducted."
Although the cause of death has not been officially confirmed, Jim House said he now has closure.
"The unknown kills you," he said Wednesday before he found out about the body in Morgan Hill.
But the last time he saw his wife, she was smiling. They spent a quiet evening together the previous night, and the couple hosted a "wonderful" Thanksgiving dinner at their home just days before, said Marilyn House, Jim House's mother.
"She's the absolute rock of our family," Marilyn House said Wednesday. "She's a wonderful mother and wife."
Michael Moore and Sara Suddes Michael Moore covers county and law enforcement issues for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106, ext. 202, or mmoore@morganhilltimes.com.
Sara Suddes is an education reporter for South Valley Newspapers. Send her an email or (408) 847-7158.
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