Bay Area woman who vanished on Valentine’s Day feared poisoning, police say

A Bay Area woman who was killed on or around Valentine’s Day may have suspected her husband was poisoning her, court testimony revealed this week.

Anu Anand Hobson, 53, was reported missing on Feb. 15 by someone who was concerned about her safety, Fairfield police said at the time. At first, her husband, Gregory Grant Hobson, 62, was also included in the missing person report. 

While investigating, Fairfield police got a hit on the couple’s silver Toyota Tacoma on Elk Grove Boulevard in Sacramento. On Feb. 16, the same vehicle was spotted in Fairfield by a police officer who ran the plate and realized it was linked to the missing persons case. Inside was Gregory Hobson, but Anu Hobson was still nowhere to be found — until investigators discovered her burned body in rural Fresno County.

Now, court testimony is filling in some of the details. At a preliminary hearing attended by the Vacaville Reporter, a Fairfield police detective testified that he learned a few strange things on a trip to the couple’s home on the 400 block of Americano Way. Home surveillance cameras allegedly showed Anu Hobson on Feb. 13, but only Gregory Hobson left the house the next day; one of the couple’s adult children allegedly told the detective that Gregory Hobson moved the camera before leaving so the footage wouldn’t record his home’s driveway.

Even more alarmingly, the detective claimed that two of the Hobsons’ children said their mother believed she was being slowly poisoned by her husband. The adult children also allegedly said Gregory Hobson accused his wife of putting eye drops in his water to harm him. 

A few weeks into the investigation, the detective said he received a call from Fresno County law enforcement. His counterparts in Fresno County believed they found a plastic container with items belonging to Anu Hobson near the West Kamm Avenue exit off Interstate 5. A grid search of the area stumbled onto the woman’s burned body; a forensic pathologist testified this week that they could not determine a cause of death, but they believed her body was set on fire after she was dead.

Gregory Hobson has been in police custody since his license plate was flagged on Walters Road on Feb. 16. The preliminary hearing continues Thursday.