Los Altos woman who plotted to kill estranged husband makes bid for parole

(KRON) -- A Los Altos woman who attempted to kill her estranged husband while the couple was going through a bitter divorce will appear in front of a state parole board Friday asking for freedom.

Laura Jean Wenke was dressed in bubble wrap and a jumpsuit when she repeatedly stabbed her husband in the neck and chest during the 2011 attack in Redwood City, prosecutors said. The couple had an eight-year-old son together. During her 2014 trial, she was dubbed the "Bubble Wrap Attacker."

Wenke has served 13 years behind bars. The prisoner, who is now 63 years old, was 50 at the time of the attempted murder. 

Wenke will ask to be released from custody when she appears at a parole hearing Friday in Central California Women’s Facility California State Prison Chowchilla. She was denied parole at three prior hearings held in 2020, 2021, and 2023.

On September 15, 2011, she co-owned a business with her 48-year-old husband. "They were going through a bitter divorce and (Wenke) was unhappy that victim had a new girlfriend," the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office wrote.

That evening, she drove to the business in Redwood City while dressed in bubble wrap with a mechanics jumpsuit over it. Her husband was working on his computer when Wenke walked in, paralyzed him using a stun gun, and began stabbing him in the chest and neck, prosecutors said.

Wenke was the beneficiary of her husband's $2 million life insurance policy. The victim survived after undergoing life-saving treatment at a hospital.

The wife pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A jury deliberated for just four hours on June 3, 2014, before finding Wenke guilty of attempted murder with premeditation, domestic violence, and assault with a deadly weapon. The jury delivered a second verdict finding that Wenke was sane during her knife attack.

A month later, a San Mateo County judge sentenced her to serve 11 years to life in state prison.