A week before Christmas, the family of a Morgan Hill man found
dead in a Gilroy Christmas tree lot is coming to grips with the
loss of their son and brother.
A week before Christmas, the family of a Morgan Hill man found dead in a Gilroy Christmas tree lot is coming to grips with the loss of their son and brother.
The body of Richard Oreste Rocchi Jr., 21, was found Tuesday morning by a worker at the tree lot, which sits just west of the Safeway on First Street. Police and family members suspect the young man died of exposure after a heavy night of drinking.
Richard Rocchi Sr. was driving with several of his son’s friends Tuesday afternoon when he got a call from his mother. He pulled over when she told him police had found his son’s body earlier that morning.
“Nobody could believe it,” he said. “We all just started holding each other, crying.”
Rocchi Jr., a native of Cottonwood, Ariz., moved to Gilroy in 2001 to be with family. He graduated from Gilroy High School and, two months ago, moved in with his cousin Bobby Rocchi in central Morgan Hill.
“He woke up that morning and had breakfast with me and then went to hang out with his friends in Gilroy,” said Bobby Rocchi, a manager and instructor at West Coast Martial Arts in Morgan Hill. “That was the last time I saw him.”
Affectionately called “Little Richie” by friends and family, Rocchi Jr. retained the nickname long after he grew out of it. A small sign placed near the Christmas tree lot read “RIP Lil Rich.” Family and friends left candles, balloons, a knitted doll and a small Christmas tree as a memorial.
Happy and outgoing, Rocchi Jr. was “loved by tons of people,” Bobby Rocchi said. An avid skateboarder with a brown belt in karate and a childhood love of strawberries, Rocchi Jr. was well-known among the skater crowd in town. He had planned a snowboarding trip with two cousins to Washington, where his mother lived, for Dec. 22. Rocchi Jr. was not employed at the time of his death.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Bobby Rocchi said. “It just didn’t seem real.”
Services will be held 10 a.m. Monday at St. Mary Church, followed by a memorial in Morgan Hill at West Coast Martial Arts.
Rocchi Jr.’s mother Karen Rocchi flew down from Washington Tuesday night after her ex-husband called her with the bad news. Some of her favorite memories of her son are his smile, his optimism and his sparkling personality, she said. She hadn’t seen him since last Christmas.
“I’m going to go on with my life, but he’s going to be deeply missed forever and always,” she said sniffling back tears. “There’s so many things I want to say to him. This Christmas is going to be a rough one. I’m pretty much taking it minute by minute.”
Though the coroner would not release the cause of death, the family and police suspect that Rocchi Jr. had too much to drink, passed out and froze to death when temperatures dipped to near freezing Monday night.
“He hated the cold,” said Angela Rocchi, Rocchi Jr.’s grandmother, her voice wavering. Rocchi Jr. called her Noni – Italian for grandma – she said. “He used to ask if he could soak in the tub, and I would say, ‘Yes, Mijo.'”
“I didn’t get to hold him,” she went on, breaking into full sobs. “I would have held him and warmed him up. I miss my Richie so much. I miss him horrible.”
Safeway employees were anxious to find out if Rocchi Jr. was the same man they found about 3 a.m. Tuesday, drenched and drunk, slumped on one of the tables in front of Safeway. Raul Granados, a Safeway employee, called police after helping Rocchi Jr. out of the rain, but Rocchi Jr. took off running before police arrived, Granados said.
After police showed them a picture of Rocchi Jr.’s body, they identified him as the man who came in early Tuesday morning, police said.
Security cameras at the surrounding businesses may shed some light on the cause of death, Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
“At this point, nothing points toward a homicide,” said Detective Jason Smith, who is leading the investigation. “There is no evidence of foul play.”
Yet since no one witnessed Rocchi Jr.’s death, police are still investigating it as a suspicious death, Gillio said. They are working to retrace the young man’s steps over the 48 hours before his death. Police will not be able to close the case until the autopsy is completed and the investigation is finished, Gillio said.
Rocchi Jr. was known to police for being in and out of the Gilroy police system, police said. He appeared on The Dispatch’s blotter in April 2006 for burglary and disturbing the peace.
“He made a couple bad mistakes,” his father said. “But he was doing his 12 steps,” referring to the sobriety program, “working to stay out of trouble.”
Rocchi Jr. turned 21 at the end of November, and this contributed to him falling off the wagon, Richard Rocchi Sr. said.
Richard Rocchi Sr. marked the 19th anniversary of his own father’s death Dec. 15, a day before he learned of his son’s death.
“It’s really hard knowing I lost my father on Dec. 15 and my son on Dec. 16,” he said. “He was my only son, my first born, such a loving kid. He wanted to carry on my name so bad.”
“My husband … reached down and picked him up,” grandmother Angela Rocchi said. “He’s not in pain any more and he’s not drinking any more.”
Rocchi Jr.’s two sisters, Sara, 18, and Angela, 17, a student at GHS, said their family is going to take a photograph of everyone while they’re together in memory of “Little Richie.”
“He was off the hook sometimes,” Sara Rocchi said with a laugh. “You couldn’t get that kid to stop smiling even in the bad times.”
Though she and her brother butted heads at times, “all the little stuff we used to fight about doesn’t even matter,” she said. “It was so stupid.”
The family member that most resembles Rocchi Jr., she sees her brother when she looks in the mirror, she said.
When her brother drank, he beat himself up and questioned if his friends and family really loved him, she said.
“I was looking up at the stars last night and I asked my brother ‘Do you believe us now? Do you believe that we love you?'” she said. “It keeps me up at night knowing he was out there in the freezing cold, and why, when he has so many friends.”
But the last time any of Rocchi’s friends heard from him was around 8 p.m. Monday night. No one knows why he was alone that night, or how he stumbled upon the tree lot, Bobby Rocchi said. Police are also having difficulty piecing together the night’s events, Gillio said, though they don’t believe he was at a bar that night.
“Putting it all together, the puzzle doesn’t fit,” Sara Rocchi said. “Something went wrong.”
About 10 a.m. Tuesday, Rocchi’s body was laying next to a portable toilet, covered with a yellow tarp. Large muddy puddles had formed after the previous night’s rain. Employees at the Christmas tree lot said he pushed through the flimsy wire fence at the back of the lot. They found him the next morning, laying face up in a large pool of water.
“It really shook the boys up,” said Patrick Mooney, the owner of Crystal River Tree Company, an Oregon-based company that rents the land near Safeway every holiday season. “It’s a tragedy for the community.”
With the support of friends, Rocchi Jr.’s family is coming together this holiday season to celebrate his life.
“We wouldn’t be able to handle this without the love of our friends and family,” Sara Rocchi said.
