Residents react after park worker found fatally stabbed in Pleasant Hill

A Bay Area family is in mourning after a Pleasant Hill park worker was found stabbed to death Saturday.

The incident happened in a normally very quiet neighborhood next to the popular Pleasant Hill Park. Residents in the area say they normally feel very safe.

“We feel safe on our walks around here,” said Leona Frankel of Pleasant Hill.

37-year-old Santiago Jacobo worked as a janitor at Pleasant Hill Park. Jacobo, a father of two young children, typically returned home to Pittsburg shortly after his shift.

But on Saturday, police said Jacobo’s wife waited and was really worried when she didn’t see him return home from his shift Friday night.

“She became concerned when she hadn’t returned home from working his shift at the park last night, so she drove to the park,” said Capt. Matt Kristic with the Pleasant Hill Police Department.

Just before 5 a.m. Saturday, police said Jacobo’s wife found him unresponsive in a parking lot next to the park. She called 911 and when paramedics arrived, they determined he had been stabbed but were not able to revive him.

Pleasant Hill resident Irene Enekov, who was walking her dog early Saturday morning, said she was shocked to hear that she had stumbled onto a homicide investigation in the park of all places.

“I just asked do you know what happened, and the woman said it’s my brother who is dead,” she said.

Others were unsettled hearing about how this hardworking father was killed.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help the family pay for funeral and other expenses.

Pleasant Hill police have not identified a suspect and is asking for anyone with information to call them.