NORWALK : Family Erects Memorial for Man Killed by Fire

A year has passed since his father died in a suspicious blaze at his Norwalk home, but Joseph Gutierrez Jr. refused to let the anniversary go unnoticed.

Gutierrez and his wife, Diane, unveiled a makeshift memorial last month that towers over the charred home: a flagpole fashioned out of old steel pipes found in his father’s garage. The pipes were welded together and painted white. Then the couple quietly raised an American flag, which the family had received as a tribute to Joseph Gutierrez Sr.’s years in the armed services.

“We had to do something (to mark the day),” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said he hopes the flag might encourage witnesses who might have information about his father’s murder to contact authorities.

Joseph Gutierrez Sr., known around the neighborhood as “Pops” or “Chino,” often fed and sheltered transients who wandered over from the nearby railroad tracks. Many of them are still around, and might have seen something that January night, Gutierrez said.

Law enforcement officials believe the fire was arson.