Family mourns Chula Vista woman killed in alleged landlord/tenant dispute
Chula Vista police responded to a welfare check at 653 Via Curvada on Sunday afternoon.
The person who called for the welfare check was 56-year-old Brenda Gillett’s sister, Wendy Bonifacio.
“I got this weird, heavy, uncomfortable feeling and said, ‘There’s something going on here,’ ” Bonifacio said. “I know she would do that for me.”
Along with their mother, Bonifacio said Gillett managed the property, where two tenants lived. One of them, 41-year-old Robert Watkins, who lived there for 11 years, is the suspect in Gillett’s killing.
The other tenant was away on vacation.
Bonifacio, who said Watkins started having friction with Gillett and her mom, added that she not sure what the arguments were about, but she said Gillett eventually got tired of the back-and-forth and decided to go to the house to resolve things in person.
After not hearing from her sister for hours, Bonifacio felt a pit in her stomach.
“They couldn’t find my sister,” Bonifacio said. “They couldn’t find anybody.… Then they came to learn that there was what appeared to be a very brutal fight and the suspect had confessed about killing her.”
Watkins allegedly wouldn’t tell police where he hid the body.
“I guess somebody with a dog had seen something that didn’t look right, and, I guess, apparently opened the suitcase, and they realized there was what could have been possible remains in it,” Bonifacio said. “Other than that, I don’t know anything else right now. We’re still waiting, and we’re just trying to focus on who she is.”
To her family, Gillett will always be the sister with no kids who took care of her 13 nieces and nephews like they were her own children. She is remembered as a 20-year Army veteran, her mom’s caretaker and someone who didn’t let her age keep her from going out dancing and having fun.
“My mom, who is very elderly and has a lot of issues, is still expecting my sister to walk through the door,” Bonifacio said. “She keeps asking, ‘When is she going to be home? Why hasn’t she arrived?’ And I have to try to remind her of the pain — that she’s not going to be coming back the way she expected.”
Watkins’ first appearance in court for a first-degree murder charge has already been delayed twice because he hasn’t shown up. A third attempt for his arraignment is scheduled for June 1.
“That’s very frustrating — very, very frustrating — because I feel like he didn’t waste no time doing what he did,” Bonifacio said. “Now, why prolong it? Like, let’s move on. ‘Fess up to it.”
As Gillett’s family grapples with both grief and so many unanswered questions, they’re planning her funeral. Before she died, Gillett shared a desire to be buried at Miramar National Cemetery, and her family is working to make that happen.
