Antioch woman’s death was ruled a suicide, but her children refused to believe it. Now, the DA says they were right

ANTIOCH — Brenda Joyce Leon was found dead in 2015 from a gunshot wound, with no clues but the firearm and a suicide note left behind. Her obituary noted that among the surviving family was her “loving husband,” a man who’d run for Antioch mayor and lost just three years earlier.

The police ruled it a suicide, according to court records. But Leon’s family wasn’t so sure — in 2021 her two grown children sued an anonymous man, “John Doe,” writing in court filings that while they couldn’t list his identity...