Funeral for Martha, Lucero and Abel Gutierrez Set for Wednesday

A funeral mass for Martha, Lucero and Abel Gutierrez will take place Wednesday at 10 a.m. at located at 11 First St. in Gilroy.

Word of the funeral follows the just before 10 a.m. on March 22. The body was found off the side of the road in the 700 block of Pacheco Pass Highway just over the San Benito County line.

Although Gilroy police Sgt. Chad Gallacinao said it appears at face value that Abel killed Martha before fatally shooting his sister Lucero Luna and then himself, friends and family of the Gutierrez family believe the family should be buried together.

“We're hoping we can keep the family together, even though the terrible tragedy, we feel like it would be right to have them all together,” said Mario Reyes, who lives below the Gutierrez apartment where the March 14 murder-suicide took place.

To help contribute toward funeral costs, Reyes, his half brother Alfredo Garcia and a group of 15 kids referring to itself as “” have been on Kern Avenue, every day, collecting donations. With little idea of the cost associated with one funeral, let alone three, Team Lucero set a goal of $30,000 to help surviving Gutierrez family members bury their loved ones.

“We spoke to the sister of the family and she was mentioning that they’re so exhausted financially because they just had family members pass away in Mexico,” Reyes said. “So we definitely know how hard it is. The best thing we can do is help them. We’ve been speaking to the sister and brother of Martha and we just told them last night that everything we raised we’re going to give to them.”

Aside from fundraising along Kern Avenue, the group held a car wash at Universal Wireless over the weekend that helped sponsor.

“The car wash alone raised over 4,000. We got a lot of support from the community,” Reyes said. “Some just drove by and donated, some came and hung out for a while and helped hold signs and a few of them helped dry cars.”

Team Lucero has currently raised $15,300 and that figure doesn’t include the three boxes of money that were donated Monday afternoon. Reyes expects that extra money will bring them up to about $18,000.

Team Lucero has also received support from business owners who never met the Gutierrez family. The manager of Fast Pizza Delivery, Rudy Valverde, has been donating two large pizzas to Team Lucero every other day.

“We’re kind of short on funds, but hey, we can feed a lot of kids with that,” Valverde said. “So we figured why not. The kids are out there and that’s our way of helping.”

Valverde also said he wanted to contribute because the death of Lucero hit close to home. Valverde has a 10-year-old step daughter, who’s just one year younger than Lucero was.

“What if something were to happen [to her] and that’s the age—she’s in fifth grade and I love her like she’s my daughter,” Valverde said. “At this age kids kind of grow up really quick, something hit them very hard to know someone at that age.”

Aside from Team Lucero, a. Reyes also said that a representative from Habing Family Funeral Home advised the Gutierrez family that people have been dropping off donations at the funeral home as well.  

Although Wednesday’s funeral is open to the public, a representative from St. Mary's said the family has requested that it be closed to all media.