End of an Unfulfilled, Alcoholic Life : Homeless: Robert Eliseo Abeyta’s dream of a fresh start in California was cut short by his drinking. His troubles apparently stemmed from childhood and ended in death in a cardboard box.

When Robert Eliseo Abeyta’s marriage collapsed in Arizona 11 years ago, he looked to Southern California to start anew.

But when he resettled in Santa Ana, relatives said, Abeyta failed to find the fresh start he was seeking. Forlorn over the separation from his wife and his three daughters, who remained in Arizona, relatives said he sank steadily into alcoholism and wound up losing his job.

This week, Abeyta’s body was found behind a Santa Ana grocery store. Police said he apparently had been sleeping in a box near a loading platform when he was crushed by a delivery truck.

The truck, driven by Fernando Castro, 32, of San Diego, was backing into the loading dock of the Santa Ana Food Market in the 1200 block of W. 1st Street about 6 a.m. Thursday when it ran over the box covering Abeyta, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Larry Wagstaff. Abeyta, 47, was found dead in the box two hours later, Wagstaff said. Police called the death an accident and Castro was not cited.

According to police and store managers, Abeyta was just another of the many transients who crawl into discarded boxes behind the store at night. Guy Lau, an assistant store manager, said the transients use the boxes as a cushion against the hard cement.

To his family, Abeyta was a tragic example of the dangers of alcoholism.

“It’s so sad,” said his sister, Alice Abeyta of Garden Grove. “Robert just could never learn to cope with the problems that life issued to us. But he’s not ever going to suffer anymore. He’s not going to be lonely anymore.”

According to Alice Abeyta and one of the victim’s daughters, Abeyta had had a drinking problem for most of his adult life. She said her brother began drinking because of a troubled childhood in Santa Fe, N.M. Abeyta’s father left the family early on, leaving Abeyta, his sister and four other brothers to grow up in foster homes, Alice Abeyta said.

As a young man, Abeyta moved with his sister to Phoenix and fell in love with a young woman employed at the same hotel where he worked. Their wedding was apparently a gala affair, with a reception and dance held at a posh Phoenix banquet room. The happiness of the bride and groom on that day 26 years ago radiates from a faded photograph kept in a closet box at Alice Abeyta’s apartment.

Although her brother was a hard worker and good provider, he continued to drink. His wife eventually told him to get out of the house, said Alice Abeyta and Abeyta’s eldest daughter, Deanna Garcia, 23, of Phoenix. The other two daughters, 21 and 19, also live in Phoenix, along with their mother.

Garcia said that amid the turmoil, there were some good times.

“We had a lot of fun together,” Garcia said. “He would buy us things. He would take us to the park and play. We would play ball and stuff like that.”

Alice Abeyta said her brother’s wife, who could not be reached for comment Friday, told Abeyta to leave and not come back until he had “straightened out his life.” After he moved to Santa Ana, Alice Abeyta said her brother’s wife severed all contact between him and the rest of the family.

“Many times he would say, ‘If only I could see my family, things would be better,’ ” Abeyta said. “He was a very lonely person because he lost his family. He figured his wife had given up on him altogether.”

Helen Valenzuela, a Santa Ana resident who helps homeless people, said she first remembers seeing Abeyta out on the street about eight years ago. He was homeless, she said, and sleeping outside. Valenzuela, 46, said she put Abeyta up in a camper trailer parked in her yard and arranged to get him on welfare assistance. He lived in the camper, off and on, until the time of his death.

Valenzuela said Abeyta was “a very, very good-hearted man” but was a chronic drinker and often disappeared for days at a time while on a drinking binge.

“He would go out and get lost, stay out drinking for days,” Valenzuela said. “Homeless friends of his would tell me that he was out in the alley and that I’d better hurry up and get him or he’d get run over.

“Two policemen came to my house two years ago after they found him halfway in the street and halfway on the sidewalk. I told him, ‘Robert, don’t sleep out there in the street. You know that cars can run over you.’ ”

Abeyta did manage to quit drinking for a 3-year period beginning in 1984, his sister said, after “being saved” in a Pentecostal church and attending weekly support sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

During that period, Alice Abeyta said her brother managed to pull his life back together somewhat. He started his own landscaping business, fell in love with another woman and played gospel songs with his guitar, she said.

But when the woman ended the relationship about 1987, Abeyta said her brother began drinking again. Until his death, she added, Abeyta tried to fight his alcoholism, but never was able to go more than a short period without a drink.

“He really tried to stop,” she said. “He was reaching out for help.”

As down as he was, Alice Abeyta said, her brother had not given up entirely on life. Only two weeks ago, she said, he spent the weekend at her place and seemed excited about his upcoming birthday on Aug. 23.

“He was reminding everyone not to forget his birthday,” Alice Abeyta said. “I planned a big celebration, and I was going to take him out to dinner.”

Services for Abeyta are awaiting the arrival of his family from Phoenix. In addition to the three daughters, he is survived by 10 grandchildren--and an 11th is due in two weeks by his daughter Deanna.