GILROY
– Christmas Day, normally a time for presents, food and joy
instead was
”
just another day
”
in an ongoing ordeal suffered by Gloria Garfias and three of her
sons. The family is still reeling from the loss of Garfias’
boyfriend, Jose Campusano, missing since Dec. 13.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Christmas Day, normally a time for presents, food and joy instead was “just another day” in an ongoing ordeal suffered by Gloria Garfias and three of her sons. The family is still reeling from the loss of Garfias’ boyfriend, Jose Campusano, missing since Dec. 13.
“It’s sad, it’s very sad,” said Garfias, wiping tears from her eyes and folding her hands in her lap.
Garfias thinks about Campusano constantly, she said, and the holidays only served as another reminder that he was gone.
Garfias and her sons did not exchange holiday gifts or attend church, nor did they have their usual celebratory feast. They just “sat around.”
“Last year, he was here to take her Christmas shopping,” Garfias’ son Alfredo, 15, said.
This time around, the family had a Christmas tree, purchased before Campusano disappeared, but they never made it to the holiday sales.
Campusano, 41, lived in an east Gilroy apartment with Garfias and three of her sons – including Alfredo; a 20-year-old; and Salvador, 10 – since late October 2002. Garfias has another, older son who lives with his father in Gilroy.
Dec. 13 began like any normal Sat-urday, Garfias said. The family got up, went to church, returned home. At about 11 a.m., Campusano told Garfias that he was going out to visit a mechanic friend of his. She reminded him that he had not yet cashed his most recent paycheck. He told Garfias that if he didn’t return home by 11:30 a.m. she should pick up Salvador from church.
That was the last Garfias saw or heard from the man who used to call her “mi’ja,” a term of endearment.
“He was just a really nice guy,” Garfias said. “He said nice things all the time, like … ‘I love you a lot.’ ”
It didn’t take long for her to know that something was amiss. Her boyfriend did not make a habit of hanging out with his few friends for long periods of time and had never stayed away all night.
The man described as calm and unassuming preferred instead to spend his free time with Garfias in their modest apartment.
Campusano often started his shift for the maintenance department at Eagle Ridge Golf Club in the afternoon, working until 11 p.m. or midnight, but he always came directly home.
“He never failed, never failed to come home,” said Garfias, a native of Mexico who speaks no English. “If I was here, then he was here in the house.”
She reported him missing that night. Although Campusano had not said he was going to Anderson Lake County Park, Garfias thought it was a place to look because he had hiked there once during the previous week. Often during last summer, Campusano took Garfias and her sons to Anderson to hike or have picnics. At about 12:30 p.m. the day after Campusano went missing, Sheriff’s deputies found his car, a gray two-door Cadillac, in a parking lot at the park east of Morgan Hill.
A search of the wooded area conducted by a sheriff’s search-and-rescue team with tracking dogs yielded no results. On Monday, Dec. 15, two days after Campusano’s disappearance, a dive team searched Anderson Reservoir but did not recover a body.
“I was imagining so many things” when they searched the reservoir, Garfias said. “I didn’t know what he did or – I don’t know.”
The family still is left with no clues to his whereabouts. Campusano never made it to his friend’s shop that Saturday.
“We can’t think of anywhere he could be,” Alfredo said. “We try not to talk about it. We don’t like to see (mom) cry.”
Sheriff’s officials are describing Campusano’s disappearance as “unexplained” but have not ruled out suicide or other “suspicious” possible causes.
The uncertainty of her boyfriend’s fate is what gnaws at Garfias most. She said she doesn’t care if he is somewhere else or with someone else, as long as he is alive and well.
“I’m just hoping he didn’t do anything to himself or hurt himself,” she said. “I feel very lonely every day.”
As for thoughts of the future, Garfias said she can only wait for news and remember the things she loves about her boyfriend.
“He was a very calm guy,” she said. “He was very patient with me and with the kids. We all got along very well.”
Garfias, who sorts garlic for Christopher Ranch, also worries about how her sons will manage without the man that has lived with them for the past year.
“They were very accustomed to him,” Garfias said. “He always watched after them.”
On weekends, Campusano used to sit on the family’s living room couch and watch Garfias’ sons play video games, getting involved by asking them questions. He would often take the boys out, Alfredo said, to places in San Jose, San Francisco or the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
A native of Mexico, Garfias, 37, immigrated to the United States about 10 years ago, staying in Oregon for a time before moving permanently to Gilroy. She first met Campusano, also from Mexico, in 1995, when he was staying with an aunt of hers. The two began a friendship and eventually began dating in August 2002. Campusano moved in with Garfias about two months later.
Garfias said she has contacted Campusano’s cousin living in Gilroy, but the two did not have much contact and the cousin has no further information. The rest of Campusano’s family lives in Mexico.
Sheriff’s officials ask that anyone with information concerning Campusano call them at 808-4400.
