Tragedies, Deliverance Link Dead Victims’ Families

Unknown to each other, two families had been united across time and distance by common grief.

One lost a son, dead in a Ventura street of a stabbing wound. Five years later, the other lost a wife and mother, gunned down in a Santa Paula grocery store by men who didn’t even bother to rifle the cash register.

On Tuesday, the families were united again, this time by relief, as police arrested the two men they say committed the killings.

“I felt like it was a gift from God,” said John Strobel IV, 43, his voice breaking, after hearing of the arrest of the man suspected of killing his 17-year-old son. “Because I thought it was never going to happen.”

At Mirna Regollar’s home in south Oxnard, the dead woman’s mother, Angela Escobedo, said word of the arrests brought tears to her eyes.

“I’m sick with grief, but we have to go forward because of them,” said Escobedo, wrapping a comforting arm around Mirna’s two young children. She cares for them while her son-in-law, Eligio Regollar, is at work.

On Tuesday, police arrested Jose “Pepe” Castillo and Alfredo Hernandez, both 21, saying both were Santa Paula gang members.

Police believe Castillo killed Jesse Strobel in 1993 during an attempted robbery and was an accomplice in Regollar’s slaying last June. Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of shooting the young mother at Junior’s Market in downtown Santa Paula, authorities say.

News of the arrests caught both families by surprise. Strobel’s family, a large and close-knit group whose Ventura roots go back nearly a century, struggled to deal with conflicting feelings.

“It caught me totally off guard,” said John Strobel. “I’m feeling happiness because I think there’s some closure ahead. But it’s not going to be easy if there’s a trial ahead.”

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Strobel said his initial relief turned to another familiar emotion--anger--as he drove to his parents’ house to tell them of the arrests. Jesse was a good-natured young man with a promising future that was snatched away by his killer, his father said.

“Jesse is gone and I’ll never get over that. Nothing will bring him back,” Strobel said. “I really like what Bill Cosby said [about his son]. Jesse was my hero.”

Mirna Regollar’s mother-in-law, Felipa, said she is happy the suspects are in custody.

“It’s very good news,” she said. “That way they don’t commit any more mistakes.”

Friends portrayed Regollar as a hard-working young woman who juggled her job at the family-owned grocery store with school to get ahead. Regollar worked the register by day and attended classes at Ventura College at night to become a nurse.

At his home in south Oxnard, the woman’s husband declined to be interviewed Tuesday.

As the cases now move to the courtroom, John Strobel said one of his biggest fears is facing the man suspected of killing his eldest son.

“It will be really hard to control myself,” he said.

Strobel family members began gathering at the home of Jesse’s grandfather, John Strobel III, as news of the arrests filtered out. The grandfather said he, too, does not look forward to what may be a long and painful trial. But the years of waiting have tempered his desire for vengeance, said the elder Strobel.

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“I don’t know what caused this to happen, what led up to it,” he said. “But I decided quite a while back that whoever it was needed forgiveness and certainly will need forgiveness when he goes before God.”

Jesse’s aunt, Wendi Strobel, said she also had conflicting emotions. She was notified of the arrest while teaching her special-education class in Los Angeles.

“I would have shouted, ‘Hallelujah!’ but the kids were in the classroom,” she said. “But it’s strange--you don’t know whether to be joyful or if you feel sad for the parents of the [suspect].”

Family members reminisced about the strapping, 6-foot-4 youth who played defensive end on the varsity football team at Ventura High School. He was attacked as he walked home from his father’s pizzeria, where he worked part time after school delivering pizza pies and washing dishes.

“He was a shining example of the best that we’ve got. He was a great kid,” said his father.

Strobel’s killing horrified the Ventura community. Residents were shocked in part because Jesse was not a gang member, and because he had apparently been targeted randomly as he walked along a Ventura street shortly before midnight on Jan. 29, 1993. Police say he was jumped by several gang members, including a then-15-year-old Castillo.

Strobel was found lying on the porch of a house on North Catalina Street and was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

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After the killing, Jesse’s father and grandfather started a grass-roots citizens group and held several “town hall” meetings to raise awareness about the rise of violent gangs. School administrators passed several measures to tighten security at the city’s two high school campuses, banning clothing favored by gangs and restricting off-campus passes.

But the momentum wore off, and as years passed with no arrests, Jesse’s father became pessimistic.

“I was frustrated,” he said. “At one point there were no leads.”

After putting in thousands of hours of investigation and pursuing hundreds of leads, Ventura detectives were also weary, said Police Chief Mike Tracy at a news conference Tuesday. But investigators plowed on, intent on being ready when the right tip came their way, Tracy said.

“For six years, our detectives have not lost sight of their mission,” said Tracy, at the Ventura Police Department in a room filled with many of the investigators who had worked on the case.

That break came last fall, when a source told Santa Paula police that Hernandez and Castillo were involved in Regollar’s slaying. The same source implicated Castillo in Strobel’s killing, authorities said. Santa Paula investigators notified Ventura police, and the agencies worked together to gather the evidence that led to Tuesday’s arrests, officials said.

For many Ventura police detectives, Tuesday was a day of somber celebration. Lt. Carl Handy, who has worked on the Strobel case from the start, summed up the feelings of many: “It’s long overdue. About six years overdue.”

Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this report.