No time for goodbyes: 'It's something you never expect, to go to work and never come home'

Wednesday, March 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

It must have seemed an ordinary Monday morning, the start of just another workweek, as the handful of employees arrived at Mi-T-Fine carwash on bustling MacArthur Boulevard in Irving.

One man had worked there for about 11 years, another for nine.

A couple of the workers were moving into middle age. The youngest, barely old enough to hold a job, was at an age when life can appear endless.

Another had already faced her own mortality - she had just come through a cancer scare.

Still another left a special living legacy: His wife is pregnant with their third child.

But the simple duty of going to work - where their paths apparently crossed a final time with a fired employee who police say was bent on robbery - cost five working-class people their lives.

A sixth victim remains in critical condition.

Family members and friends said they haven't yet grasped the finality forced upon them in the chill of that early morning.

For them, devastation and despair echoed in each flash of a gun, emotions that will linger as long as there is someone to remember the individuals and the ways they lived.

"It's something you never expect," said Ronda Donaghey, a relative of one of the victims, "to go to work and never come home."

Rhoda G. Wheeler

Rhoda Wheeler's life was divided between city and country - and devoted to family.

At 47, she had raised a son and a daughter and, during her 20-year-marriage to husband David, had helped raise his son and daughter.
On weekdays, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler lived in Irving, where they worked and kept an apartment. At the end of the week, they drove 80 miles west to Lipan, the small town where he was born and reared and where she attended Calvary Baptist Church.

Weekends were their favorite time, said Mr. Wheeler, 53, a computer software technician. She had worked part time at the carwash for about 18 months "just to have something to do after the kids got grown," he said.

She recently learned that she might have cancer, but further testing showed she was out of danger. "We beat that, but we couldn't beat this," Mr. Wheeler said.

Mrs. Wheeler was born in Lubbock and grew up in Antelope in the Wichita Falls area. She was a nurse at a Dallas doctor's office when they met, Mr. Wheeler recalled.

"She was a wonderful person, outgoing," he said. "She spoke what was on her mind. She told the truth."

Rhonda Bowman, a manager at the River Oaks Apartments where the Wheelers lived for six years, was close to Mrs. Wheeler. She remembered her friend as a beautiful woman with "a love of life." "She was an incredible lady, very upbeat, full of life," Ms. Bowman said. "Even if things were a mess, she was happy. I never saw her depressed, ever."

Mrs. Wheeler arranged Ms. Bowman's wedding flowers, the apartment manager said, and was an inspiration - supporting Ms. Bowman during a child-custody dispute and never giving up hope when Ms. Bowman's dog was lost for months.

The dog was found just two weeks ago and Ms. Bowman recalled the
homecoming. "Rhoda cried and held my dog and told her how much she had been missed," she said. "It was a pretty tearful moment."

Lance Turner, a former manager at the carwash, said Mrs. Wheeler was "one of the nicest ladies you'd ever want to know."

"You could just sit and talk to her about anything," Mr. Turner said. "I believe she just really loved to work there because she got to meet and talk to people."

Agustin VillaseÃ±or, Benjamin VillaseÃ±or

Benjamin VillaseÃ±or, 32, came to North Texas from Mexico. His older brother, Agustin, gave him his first job.

And when the younger Mr. VillaseÃ±or needed a place to stay, his 35-year-old brother welcomed him into his Arlington home.

The VillaseÃ±or brothers lived, worked and died together.

"They were very close," said Adalia VillaseÃ±or, Agustin VillaseÃ±or's wife, sitting on a sofa in the couple's home Tuesday.

Her husband had worked at the Irving carwash for about 11 years, and his brother for about seven years, she said. The younger brother, who was single, later moved in with friends in Irving.

On Monday morning, Mrs. VillaseÃ±or's husband, whom she said was popular among customers, left for work about 7 a.m. "He gave me a kiss and he said, 'I'll see you later,' " she said.

It was the last time she spoke to him. She said her husband never mentioned Robert Wayne Harris, who was arrested Tuesday in Far East Dallas in connection with the shootings.

Relatives and friends are helping Mrs. VillaseÃ±or cope with the loss of her husband, she said. Meanwhile, she is left with a special gift from the husband she has lost: Mrs. VillaseÃ±or is about six weeks pregnant with the couple's third child.

Mr. VillaseÃ±or's death leaves two young children and two stepdaughters. About three weeks ago, he found out he was going to be a father again, his wife said.

"At first we were both like in shock," Mrs. VillaseÃ±or said. "As a matter of fact, we thought we were never going to have any more."

Surrounded by relatives, she described her husband as a gentle, friendly, hard-working man who also liked to shoot pool with friends. She said he sometimes worked seven days a week at the carwash, where he was an assistant manager.

"He just loved to work," she said. "He always tried to do better things for us. He was in the process of remodeling our home."

The couple met at the carwash about 10 years ago when she stopped by to give money to her brother, who worked there at the time. The VillaseÃ±ors were married about five years later.

"I liked his ways, just the way he would handle certain different situations," she said.

She said her husband came to Texas 15 or 16 years ago to "make a better life for himself."

He has more than 10 siblings, many of whom live in Texas. His parents, whom he was "always watching out for" are deceased, she said.

Mrs. VillaseÃ±or's mother, Amelia Lopez, said her son-in-law will be remembered for his devotion to his children and his family.

"He was always wanting to do the best for his children. He was always loving to them," Ms. Lopez said. "He always said he wanted them to have everything he didn't get to have when he was little.

"I guess that's why he worked so hard."

Dennis D. Lee

Dennis Lee, 48, was working hard to manage the carwash and to help raise two grandchildren.

Mr. Lee sometimes put in 80-hour weeks at the carwash, said his daughter-in-law, Ronda Donaghey of Irving. "He opened and closed that place seven days a week," she said.

Born in Omaha, Neb., Mr. Lee lived in Irving and had been a Mi-T-Fine carwash employee for nine years. Previously, he had worked a number of odd jobs after serving in the Army during the Vietnam War, she said.

"He survived that, but he couldn't survive this," Ms. Donaghey said.

Lance Turner, a former manager at the carwash, described Mr. Lee as exceptionally hard-working. "For a guy his age to be out there in the hot sun all day long takes someone special," Mr. Turner said. "He was doing an incredible job."

Mr. Lee had 10 grandchildren and was helping raise two of them. "He was very good to his girls," Ms. Donaghey said of the grandkids. "Every one of us loved him."

Mr. Lee enjoyed spending his free time at his personal computer, she said. "You'd walk in his house and he'd be at his computer," Ms. Donaghey said. "He just had an outgoing personality. You just remember him laughing."

Roberto Jimenez Jr.

Roberto Jimenez Sr. immigrated illegally to the United States a month ago with his 15-year-old son and a plan to work hard for a better life.

Instead, he must return to Mexico to bury his son and those plans for a new life.

He will never, he said, return to the United States.

"I thought he would accomplish things I couldn't do," Mr. Jimenez said of his son, Roberto Jr. "But by killing him, they've killed me. I'm not returning to the United States once I take my son back.

"I don't know what I'm going to tell his mother."

Mr. Jimenez spoke inside a cramped, two-bedroom apartment near the carwash where the Jimenezes and six other immigrants lived.

Two other men who lived there also were shot in the carwash attack. Benjamin VillaseÃ±or was killed and Octavio Ramos, 36, was in critical condition Tuesday.

A large tapestry of the Virgin Mary hung on the wall. At her feet, six candles burned in honor of the shooting victims.

Mr. Jimenez was consoled by his fellow countrymen amid a clutter of clothes and boxes.

He said he was willing to talk about his undocumented status in order to tell his son's story.

Last month, the two left the city of Puebla, about 80 miles from Mexico City, intending to earn enough money in the United States to expand his printing shop. Mr. Jimenez's wife and 12-year-old daughter stayed behind.

Father and son both worked at the carwash for a while, but the elder Jimenez quit last Friday to take a job as a maintenance worker at a Cost Plus store.

He said he had been looking forward to Tuesday because he expected his son to be hired at the same store - a step up from the carwash.

"We weren't very happy at the carwash because the work wasn't steady," he said. "My son was a very happy boy. He was a good worker. He loved basketball.
"Why did he do this?" Mr. Jimenez asked of the man charged with the killings. "Why did he hurt so many people? Why did he hurt my son?"

Staff writers Frank Trejo, Joe Simnacher and The Associated Press contributed to this story.