Police search home of woman who says she found finger in chili

Eric Leake

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

Police have searched the Las Vegas home of a woman who made national news when she said she found a human finger in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant.

Detectives from the San Jose Police Department, assisted by Metro Police, served a search warrant and proceeded to search Anna Ayala's home near Serene Avenue and Maryland Parkway on Wednesday afternoon.

San Jose Police Officer Enrique Garcia, a spokesman for the department, said he could not provide any details of the search nor say for what authorities may have been looking.

"We have a human body part and we need to determine if it was an industrial accident, a homicide, or something else," Garcia said. "This is a wide open investigation and anything is a possibility."

San Jose Police Sgt. Nick Muyo said the search warrant alleged the family may have obtained the finger from a dead relative.

Ayala claims that while eating at a Wendy's in San Jose, Calif., on March 22, she put a spoonful of chili in her mouth and bit down on a severed human finger.

The Santa Clara County Health Department confirmed that the 1 1/2 inch-long piece of matter was a human finger.

Police said that identifying the source of the finger is more important than how it got to be in the chili.

"We need to identify the person that the finger belongs to, obviously, and figure out what happened," Garcia said.

He said police are working with the coroner and other Santa Clara County offices in the unusual investigation.

"This doesn't happen every day," Garcia said. "We have to start from scratch and look at every bit of information and every possibility."

Ayala's daughter and a family friend who lives at the same residence denied on Thursday television news reports that the family may have planted the finger.

"Why would we put a finger in my mom's food? Why would she chew on a finger?" said Ayala's 13-year-old daughter, Genesis Reyes.

She said she, her mother, and some relatives visited the Wendy's after an extended trip to Mexico. Ayala had crushed crackers over her chili and was eating when she noticed something odd.

"Something went in her mouth. She was crunching on it because she thought it was a cracker," Genesis said.

She said the something was thought to be a piece of pork or a fingernail until it was determined to be a human finger.

Wendy's announced a $50,000 reward Wednesday for the first person to provide verifiable information leading to the identification of the origin of the finger.

"We believe someone knows exactly what happened, and hopefully the reward will encourage this person to come forward," Wendy's President Tom Mueller said in a release.

Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini said he could not comment on the police search or where the finger may have come from.

"We have no evidence to indicate that Wendy's was the source of the foreign object," Bertini said from company headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.

He said there were no reports of injuries among Wendy's employees or those of chili suppliers.

"An injury like that you would know. Again, we remain very confident in our quality control measures," Bertini said.

He added that the employee making the chili that day has been with Wendy's for more than a decade.

Bertini said he was not aware of any direct communications between Wendy's and the Ayala family.

Ayala's daughter Genesis spoke about the finger and the search of her home Thursday with her arm in a sling. She said police threw her to the ground during the search and tore tendons in her shoulder.

"They broke windows, doors, put holes in the wall," Genesis said.

She said the family has never before had issues with police. Police did not comment on specifics of the search.

The family did sue for medical expenses about a year ago after Genesis ate at a local El Pollo Loco and got sick afterward, but the family did not otherwise have a history of legal action, Genesis said.

Ayala remained in her home and declined comment Thursday. Calls to her house were not answered this morning.

Ken Bono, 24, a family friend who resides at the home, said the controversy had taken a toll on Ayala.

"She hasn't eaten much. She's not feeling good at all. She's all stressed out," Bono said.

He pointed to a shoe print and dent in the front door and said at least a dozen police officers and detectives ransacked the house for six hours the day before.

"I believe they were looking for evidence that we planted this or the family planted it," Bono said. "They didn't find nothing, not a single thing."

Bono said officers searched freezers, a picnic cooler in the backyard, and the belongings of an aunt who used to live at the house.

"She doesn't have the heart or the stomach for none of that," Bono said of Ayala.

He said the family has contacted an attorney and is considering legal action.