Authorities have identified the woman found killed in a California Street apartment on Saturday as Vanessa Lynn Sanchez, a college admissions administrator who grew up in Connecticut before moving to the Bay Area.
Sanchez, 37, “loved fiercely and wholeheartedly,” according to an obituary from her family. “She had an extraordinary gift for making people feel seen, valued, loved and deeply cared for.”
Sanchez was born in Hartford, in central Connecticut, and grew up in nearby South Windsor. She went to Eastern Connecticut State University and then Sacred Heart University, also in Connecticut. She moved to Berkeley eight years ago, in 2018, according to the obituary, and went to work at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, a role she left in 2024.
In November 2022, the same month she turned 34, Sanchez was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2023 she learned that the cancer had already metastasized to her bones. She chronicled some milestones in her treatment on social media, including the decision to have a double mastectomy, posting a “tribute to mis pechos” the day before they were removed…