Suspect leads police on a wild chase that ends in San Jose
Gilroy – The suspected killer of a Gilroy woman was arrested Thursday morning by San Jose police following an hour-long highway chase from San Jose to Gilroy then back to San Jose.
Franca Barsi was found dead in her Gilroy home Wednesday morning, leading Gilroy police to issue an alert to nearby departments for the arrest of David Vincent Reyes.
After first being spotted at 7:48am driving on Basch Avenue in east San Jose, Reyes, 39, led police west through the city and down U.S. 101, according to San Jose Police Sgt. Nick Muyo. Once they reached the Tennant Avenue exit in Morgan Hill, San Jose police handed the chase off to the California Highway Patrol, who followed Reyes as he exited in Gilroy at Leavesley Road and immediately turned back north on U.S. 101.
Reyes ultimately surrendered without a struggle at the spot where police first caught sight of him driving a white Chrysler minivan with wood paneling, though not before he rammed the van into a police car, Muyo said.
“It was a very controlled pursuit. There was not a lot of movement,” Muyo added, saying that chase speeds never exceeded 45 mph on city roads and 70 mph on the highway. He also said bystanders, police officers and Reyes emerged from the chase uninjured.
The van Reyes was driving belonged to Barsi, a 38-year-old found dead at 8155 Westwood Drive, Unit 3, Wednesday morning. Gilroy police upgraded the status of Reyes Thursday from a “person of interest” in the case to the lead suspect in Barsi’s murder.
Though police continued to withhold any details about the circumstances of Barsi’s death and the exact nature of her relationship with Reyes, Gilroy Police Sgt. Kurt Svardal said Reyes lived with Barsi and her 10-year-old son in the two-story condominium complex. Barsi’s sister, Lauretta Avina, told the San Jose Mercury News that the two had been friends for several years and began dating about a year ago, against the family’s wishes.
Reyes was already on Gilroy’s most wanted list for armed robbery charges and for violating sex-offender registration laws.
San Jose police caught sight of Reyes while responding to a citizen tip about a red Honda Civic, also registered under Barsi’s name, that was parked on Basch Avenue. On Wednesday afternoon, Gilroy police asked nearby law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for both vehicles.
Police would not divulge who lived at the home where the vehicle was parked, though other news sources reported that Reyes’ family live in the area.
“We received a call to check on this address on Basch Avenue in East San Jose,” Muyo explained. “We got there and found the white Chrysler minivan that is also part of this case. … They attempted to make a car stop but he kept driving.”
The chase that ensued ended with Reyes’ arrest at 8:55am. By 11am, he was in the custody of Gilroy police, according to Svardal.
He said the department is not currently investigating any other suspects in Barsi’s murder.
At Gilroy High School, she had the world by a string
Gilroy – Mara Perez knew something was wrong when her grandson called to say he needed a ride.
Her daughter, Franca Barsi, always dropped off the 10-year-old boy at school and picked him up. But on Tuesday afternoon, Barsi called her son to say she had to drive to San Jose and that he should call his grandmother for a ride.
“She lived for her son,” Perez said. “She had a special relationship with Andrew. She would call him 10 times a day. That’s why I thought something was wrong, because she would never ever call her son and tell him to call us because she’d be late.”
After picking the boy up, doing homework and eating dinner, Perez grew anxious. Repeated phone calls to Barsi’s cell had gone unanswered, and Perez decided to drive past her daughter’s condominium complex at 8155 Westwood Drive to check for her red Honda Civic . With no sign of the car, Perez decided to file a missing person’s report with Gilroy Police Department.
“By 10, 11 o’clock, I knew deep in my heart something was wrong,” Perez said. “But I never thought she was dead.”
On Wednesday morning, Gilroy police returned to Barsi’s home to find her murdered. Police have not revealed any details about the circumstances of the crime, but on Thursday morning they arrested Barsi’s boyfriend, 39-year-old David Vincent Reyes, following an hour-long car chase.
Police said Reyes, who lived with Barsi and her son at the house, is the only suspect at this point.
A high school standout who was crowned Gilroy Garlic Queen in 1986, Barsi was described by her family as a woman with a big heart who devoted her life to her son. She met Reyes several years ago through a school function at Glen View Elementary School, where he also had a child at the time, according to Perez. She said her daughter had dated Reyes for more than a year but rarely spoke of the relationship because she could sense her family’s disapproval.
Perez said Reyes never mistreated their daughter in front of them. Only after Barsi’s death did the family learn that Reyes was on the Gilroy Police Department’s most wanted list for armed robbery charges and for failing to register as a sex offender.
“In the last few weeks, she said she was trying to get away from him,'” Perez said. “The people at her work told me that it seemed like she was afraid of him.”
News of the tragedy spread quickly through Gilroy in the last two days and shocked those who knew Barsi.
“Franca, in high school, was one of the most popular kids in school,” said Darren Yafai, a close high school friend who graduated with Barsi in 1986. “She was very involved – she was lead in the senior play, was a cheerleader. In addition to that, she was one of the nicest people you could know.”
The 1986 Gilroy High School yearbook tells the story of a promising young woman. Basketball, swimming, Students Against Drunk Driving, Junior Homecoming Princess and several plays were listed among Barsi’s accomplishments. Her senior quotation: “Go for it!”
Barsi and her family moved to Gilroy from Tuscany, Italy when she was four years old. She and her older sister Lauretta and younger brother Claudio remained fluent in the language.
The year she graduated, Barsi was crowned the Gilroy Garlic Queen, an honor conferred on young women who demonstrate a spirit of leadership and community service.
Following high school, Barsi headed to Hartnell College before making her way to Columbia College Hollywood to study film and television. She cut short her schooling to return to Gilroy when her father became sick. Once home, she met the future father of her child and, after her son was born, spent several years living with her mom and stepfather. For the last nine years, Barsi worked as a cashier at PW Supermarket, most recently in a store in San Jose.
Employees at Nob Hill Grocery store, where Perez worked for more than 20 years before retiring in December, expressed shock and sympathy at news of the tragedy.
“They’re such a good family,” said one clerk who declined to give her name.
The same sentiment was expressed by a neighbor who lives a few doors down from Barsi’s condominium.
“I’d see her all the time,” said the neighbor, also asking not to be named. “She appeared to be a great mother … She worked hard. She was always going to work in the morning, taking her son to school and coming back home with him.”
The neighbor never noticed any suspicious activity around Barsi’s home and considered the gated community, just north of the First Street shopping corridor, a safe neighborhood.
“That’s why I’m so devastated,” she said. “It’s just been so quiet – no arguments, nothing out of the norm. It was like being hit with a brick behind the head.”
Pictures of their daughter – one from grade school, another from when she was crowned Garlic Queen – were strewn on the family’s kitchen table Thursday night, as family and friends called with condolences. Perez said her daughter never lost her youthful exuberance, though her life had grown more difficult in recent years.
“She was living the single mother’s life,” Perez said. “I know the last moment she must have been thinking about her son. She knows we will take care of him.”
The family has not yet made arrangements for funeral services but plans to set up a memorial fund in coming days.
