Son still haunted by father's 1996 unsolved slaying

Will David | The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

Show Caption Hide Caption N.Y. man's murder, still unsolved, haunts son Yonkers (N.Y.) Police Department Cold Case Unit Detective John Geiss and Louie Atienza talk about the Nov. 26, 1996, killing of Atienza's father, Victor J. Atienza.

Victor J. Atienza%2C 51%2C was shot while in his car in his driveway in 1996

Police knew it would be a difficult case because there was little evidence%2C few witnesses

Yonkers Police Department%27s Cold Case unit now has the investigation

YONKERS, N.Y. -- Louie Atienza can't forget the night he watched his father brutally slain in the driveway of their Yonkers, N.Y., home.

Victor J. Atienza, 51, a Philippine immigrant who worked as a laser mechanic at the now-defunct Precision Valve Corp. in Yonkers, was the patriarch of a close-knit family. After nearly 17 years, his slaying remains unsolved.

But now the Yonkers Police Department is hoping that will change. The Nov. 26, 1996, killing has been turned over to Yonkers Detective John Geiss of the Cold Case Squad.

The killing

Just before midnight, Louie, then 24, and his father were performing a nightly ritual of moving their cars, so his mother, Lourdes, a nurse at at a nursing home in Yonkers, could park in their narrow driveway.

The night was cold and rainy. Louie was in his 1989 Pontiac, Victor in his maroon 1986 Jaguar XJ16, the windows up.

In his rear-view mirror, Louie saw a man walk up to his father's car as it backed up toward the street.

"I don't know if he bumped into the car," Louie told The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News in a recent interview.

The man had something in his hand. Louie thought it was a cane.

"It looked like they were talking, so I didn't think anything of it," he said. He thought his father knew the person.

The man hit the driver's-side window with the object. His father honked the horn. Louie saw a flash from a sawed-off shotgun.

The gunman, wearing dark clothing and a hood, ran east up Glenwood Avenue, a steep hill, holding the weapon in both hands. Louie ran after him but lost him behind a house.

"I actually screamed for him (the gunman) to come out," Louie recalled. "None of my neighbors came out. I screamed, 'How come no one is coming out?' "

When he returned, his father's car was still running.

"His head was basically split in two," Louie said. "I tried to hold everything together."

His younger brother, Robert, came out, and Louie told him to get towels and call 911. Just then his mother arrived, and Louie ran to meet her. "I told her, daddy is dead," he said.

"I think about it every day," Louie said. "I don't think I have ever had a chance to forget about it."

The investigation

When police arrived, they searched unsuccessfully for the gunman.

Yonkers Detective Vincent Tilson said he knew right away it was going to be a difficult case because there was little evidence and few witnesses.

"A lot of times, days after the homicide people are talking about it," Tilson said. "The streets were quiet. There were no leads to go on after the homicide. With this case, we got nothing."

Geiss, who has solved 13 murders in the past 13 years, is confident he'll find Atienza's killer.

Police Commissioner Charles Gardner said police never forget about the victims or their families.

"The Yonkers Police Department commits extensive resources and has had great success with our cold-case investigations, primarily through the work of Detective John Geiss," he said.

Geiss, who started working on the case several months ago, said he hopes DNA samples will turn up clues.

He said he thinks there was another witness to the slaying and wants that person to come forward.

"He was a good man," Geiss said of Atienza. "He worked. He had no problems with anyone in the neighborhood. It was something that was a little disconcerting because he was picked out of nowhere. It could have been anyone. I think Mr. Atienza happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Detectives say someone may have become angry after accidentally bumping into Atienza's car as it backed out.

More likely is that the slaying began as an attempted robbery. Some neighbors reported hearing from inside their homes someone saying, "Give me your wallet" before the shot was fired.

There had been several armed robberies in that area in which a shotgun was used, Geiss said. Some may have gone unreported because the robbery crews were vicious.

Geiss wants the robbery victims to come forward since they may have been robbed by Atienza's killer.

Atienza moved to Canada from Sampaloc, Manila, and then immigrated to the United States in 1972.

The family's grief

The slaying left Louie Atienza's life in shambles. He has been unable to hold a steady job and is still racked with guilt over the death of a father who he always sought to make proud.

"I felt bad," he said. "I felt a little responsible for it. Maybe I could have done something to prevent it."

After the death, his sister, Marivic, and brother, Robert, moved out. Marivic, 38, lives in Secaucus, N.J. Robert, 35, lives in Yonkers. Louie continued to live with his mother, who died in August 2010 from complications from diabetes. She was 65. She is buried beside her husband.

"She was a very strong woman," he said. "She tried not to show it. She didn't talk about him."

Their silver wedding anniversary was a month after the slaying.

"She went to the cemetery every day," Louie said. "She put flowers on the grave and gardened around it."

All his time was devoted to her, and they went everywhere together.

"I felt responsible to watch over her," he added.

In 1997, the family offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Today, Louie's life is in limbo. "I can't seem to get out of a stuck mode," he said.

He has worked for several years as a bartender at at a bowling alley and lives alone in the family's large green stucco house, which is in a state of disrepair.

Louie said he can't afford to heat or repair the house, and he can't afford to move. He leaves the house every day through the driveway and relives the killing each time.

"The only thing I can look for is closure," he said, "someone being brought to justice."