Body of Ex-O.C. Worker Recovered From Rubble

Derek Avillanoza was dreading the call. But at the same time, learning that his father’s body had been recovered amid the rubble at Oklahoma City’s federal building at least brought an end to his family’s nightmarish wait.

Rescuers recovered the body of Peter Avillanoza sometime over the weekend at an undisclosed site at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, his son said Monday. The 56-year-old former housing investigator in Orange had only recently begun working as a director at the U.S. Housing and Urban Development offices in Oklahoma City.

“We wanted to hold on to that glimmer of hope that he was still alive,” Derek Avillanoza said. “But last week, we got the feeling that he had been in there too long without food. We’re taking it hard, but at the same time, at least we know his fate.”

On Monday, Peter Avillanoza’s former colleagues in Orange were shaken to hear the news. But they too said it was difficult to believe he had survived the blast, considering he had been missing since the April 19 explosion.

“When someone is listed as missing, it’s always hard,” said Irving Himelblau, his former boss at HUD’s compliance division in Orange. “But when you’re confronted with this news, it’s final. It’s been very hard getting used to the idea that he’s definitely gone.”

Peter Avillanoza’s nephew, Walter, who lives in Aliso Viejo, recently returned from Oklahoma City, where several family members monitored search efforts.

“A lot of people reached out to us. It was amazing,” Walter Avillanoza said. “People from a church over there brought us food, and one man from a local (Hawaiian dance troupe) came over and said, ‘Anything you need, we’ll get it for you.’ That helped a lot.”

Derek Avillanoza, 34, who lives in Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, said a fund also has been established in Santa Barbara County to help his family pay for funeral costs.

“The whole experience is overwhelming,” he said. “But it helped us a lot to have that kind of support.”

After working as a federal housing investigator for much of his career, Peter Avillanoza had accepted a promotion earlier this year as a director at HUD’s program operation division in Oklahoma City. He moved from Palmdale to Oklahoma City with his wife, Darlene, and her daughter from a previous marriage.

“I talked to him a week before this happened, and he was very enthusiastic,” said Helen Narahara, a longtime friend who worked with Peter Avillanoza at the HUD offices in Honolulu. “He was thinking of buying a place, and he said he wanted to buy some horses and cows. He said to me, ‘You probably think it’s just a desert over here, but it’s not. There’s a lot of beautiful trees.’ ”

Peter Avillanoza, who had six children and 13 grandchildren, worked as a police officer and firefighter in Honolulu before beginning his long career with the federal government. In addition to working as a manager at a federal prison in Lompoc, Avillanoza worked at HUD offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange before he transferred to the Honolulu branch in 1990. He returned to Orange in December, 1994, only to leave for Oklahoma City in March.

A native of Honolulu, Peter Avillanoza loved to surf and sing Hawaiian music. Darlene Avillanoza was a member of a hula dance troupe in Torrance, and Peter Avillanoza regularly sang at the troupe’s functions or played the keyboard.

“He sang wonderfully,” said Patricia Shimamoto of Hawthorne, who also performs with the hula group. “He was always so happy-go-lucky, and he was always there to support us. When I first met him, he looked so big. I didn’t know what to think. But then, I found out that he’s like a big teddy bear.”

Funeral services for Peter Avillanoza will be held Monday in Honolulu, where he spent much of his life.

“He has a lot of friends here,” Narahara said. “And he had a lot of aloha for the islands.”

Meanwhile, family members say they are trying to recover from the trauma of the past two weeks.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Derek Avillanoza said. “But I know when I see the casket being lowered into the ground, it’s going to blow me away.”