The last time his family saw him, the 36-year-old was headed downtown to meet a friend. Hours later his body was found. A gray hair discovered at the scene may prove who stabbed him to death.

BY DAWN HOBBS

Detectives found the first lead in Frank Gomez's shirt pocket.

The 36-year-old brother of a police officer was found stabbed to death behind the ticket office of the Santa Barbara Bowl shortly after midnight on Jan. 31, 1995. The blood-stained note in his pocket contained a name, phone number and the words "follow your heart."

Frank was last seen alive about 9 p.m. leaving The Pub on Helena Avenue, near lower State Street, with a gray-haired white man in his 50s.

The homicide is one of 22 unsolved cases in Santa Barbara. The Police Department's new Cold Case Unit detectives are sending a hair strand found at the crime scene to the state Department of Justice crime lab for DNA analysis. The hair may well be that of the killer.

And if his DNA is already in a state databank, the detectives may have their man.

The note was blurred from blood and torn in the stabbing. The crime lab washed it out and pieced it back together. The front was a church prayer card, with writing on the back.

Detectives found the man named on the note in San Diego. He worked with Frank eight years before the murder at a Santa Barbara grocery store called Follow Your Heart, once in the Milpas Street shopping center where Trader Joe's is now located. He hadn't talked to him since.

"But then he said he had this dream," said Sgt. Mike McGrew. "In the dream, Frank was in a car and he was being attacked."

The man described the car and a nearby chain-link fence, and eventually, the whole crime scene. The man said he got a bad feeling about the dream and tracked down Frank's dad and left a message to have his son call.

"Then he says there's something about a prayer card in the dream, but he didn't know what it was," Sgt. McGrew said. "Turns out his dad got the message the day before the homicide and then wrote down the guy's name and number on a prayer card he used to keep as scratch paper next to the phone."

Then he gave it to his son.

The man gave police so much detail about the crime scene the detectives started to look at him as a suspect. But the lead didn't pan out.

"We checked alibis, neighbors, girlfriends, everybody — there's no way he was at the crime scene," he said. "His mom said this wasn't the first time something like that happened. Couple years before, he had a dream about his friend in Montana being in a fire. He called the guy in the middle of the night and woke him up. His whole downstairs was in flames."

Detectives consulted an FBI profiler who believes the murder was the work of a serial killer.

"It was an organized crime scene, compared to a disorganized crime scene," Sgt. McGrew said. "There was an obvious lack of evidence at this crime scene — normally there's more."

Detectives searched hard for the man seen leaving the bar with Mr. Gomez. They pulled driver's license photos of every gray-haired man in the tricounties.

"We literally ran down several hundred look-alike leads," Sgt. McGrew said. But nothing panned out.

"You put a lot of pressure on yourself in any homicide," he said. "But in this case, I see his brother here at the station every day. I think about it frequently. I've never stopped working the case. Each homicide takes a piece of you. Every single one you work."

Officer Leonard Gomez still feels bad he wasn't there to protect his little brother.

"I'm in a position sworn to protect the life and property of everybody," Officer Gomez said. "And you're supposed to put your life down in order to accomplish this. It makes me feel helpless that I wasn't there to help him. It's probably the most terrible part of this. It bothers me constantly."

Before he died, Frank was to be named godfather at the baptism of Officer Gomez' son.

The officer and his wife, Susan, believe Frank has watched over David. The first month after the murder, they'd frequently smell toast — a snack Frank always made for himself — every time they got near the crib.

Officer Gomez described his brother as a "man with a heart of gold. He always thought of others before himself. He would even be a friend to a stranger. He was very trusting. That may have been his downfall."

Sergeants McGrew and Don Knapp notified Officer Gomez of his brother's death that night. He then went to his parent's house.

"In my 25 years of being a police officer, the hardest thing that I have ever had to do was tell my parents, 'Your son, my brother, your Frank is dead,'" Officer Gomez said, holding back tears. "It was just devastating."

Eloise and Joel Gomez have visited their son's grave at Calvary Cemetery once a week for the past seven years.

On Saturday, Dec. 7, they made a special trip — like they do every year — for his birthday.

Frank would have been 43 years old.

That night Mrs. Gomez made Frank's favorite dinner — meatloaf, mashed potatoes and banana cream pie — like she has every year for his birthday since he was a little boy.

Mr. Gomez remembered the last time they had dinner together, the night he was killed. Frank was going to stay in that evening. But a friend called and said he had the money he owed Frank.

"He said he's going out for a little while and that he'd be home early," Mr. Gomez recalled. "And for whatever reason, I went to the window and just watched him cross the street and walk away. That was the last time I saw him."

Mrs. Gomez still walks by her son's room every evening and gently whispers good night. His favorite suit and maroon track uniform from Westmont College still hang in the hallway closet.

Mr. and Mrs. Gomez, who have been eucharistic ministers at Our Lady of Sorrows for 22 years, still beam with pride when they look at photographs of their son on the Westmont track team or coaching cross-country and track at Santa Barbara High School.

On special occasions, they light a candle in front of one of Frank's track awards.

Mrs. Gomez proudly recalled her son as a lover of history books, and a math whiz with a 3.8 GPA. She even recalled how when he was just a bit more than 2 years old, he could recite the alphabet and count to one hundred.

"He is such a beautiful gentle person who is missed so much by everyone," Mrs. Gomez said. More than seven years later, the memory still makes her cry.

She recalled how she originally felt hatred for her son's killer.

"But I asked God to remove it and he turned the hate to pity," she said. "I just pray that they get that person off the streets and put him where he belongs.

"But it will not ease the pain of what has happened," she said, wiping away tears. "That will always be there. That pain will only be healed when I meet my son face to face again."

YOU CAN HELP
If you have information about Frank Gomez's killing, you may call the Santa Barbara Police Department's Cold Case Unit at 897-2320 or 897-2426. You can also call the department's Anonymous Tipline at 569-COPS or send an e-mail to tipline@newspress.com.

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