Mourners Pay Final Respects to Retired Nurse Killed During Carjacking

Nearly 100 people crowded into the tiny chapel on the Port Hueneme Navy base to pay their respects Wednesday to Mildred Charlotte Wilson, the retired nurse who was shot to death during a Ventura carjacking last weekend.

Friends and relatives of the popular Oxnard woman dabbed at their eyes and hung their heads as Rev. James K. Bain discussed the woman and the tragic circumstance surrounding her death.

“When a good person dies an untimely and tragic death . . . we may ask, ‘My God, my God, why?’ ” Bain told the mourners huddled inside the Seabee Chapel, where Wilson was married 10 years ago this fall.

“But the shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept,’ ” the minister reminded the group.

Wilson, 65, died Saturday after being shot in the parking lot of the Poinsettia Shopping Center on Telephone Road. A group of young men approached her about 2:15 p.m. and demanded the keys to her 1986 Crown Victoria.

One of the suspects shot Wilson in the chest during the confrontation, and she was pronounced dead at Ventura County Medical Center within an hour.

Police have made no arrests in the case and they have few leads.

The vehicle was found abandoned along Telephone Road near the crime scene.

Meanwhile, investigators have not ruled out the possibility that a convicted killer from Los Angeles County, who was mistakenly released from custody earlier this month, may be involved in the shooting.

The resemblance between that suspect--18-year-old Juan Espino of Los Angeles--is too close to ignore, Ventura police said. But Lt. Don Arth, a detective working on the case, said Espino was not yet considered a suspect.

“I still wouldn’t consider that a hot lead,” Arth said.

Wilson is survived by family members in Canada. She left behind scores of close friends she met through the Oxnard mobile home park she lived in and the dance lessons and contests she was so fond of.

During the 45-minute memorial service, Bain told friends and family members not to sink into despair or to question why such random acts of violence occur.

“We pray that some good may come of this tragedy,” he said.

The minister then read from a lengthy letter written by Ian Ferguson, Wilson’s little brother.

In the letter, which brought tears to many of those in the chapel, Ferguson pledged that his family would not allow Wilson’s death to destroy them. But he also said he felt cheated out of spending more time with his sister.

“We feel robbed of the many years, the happy times we could have shared,” the letter said.

Times correspondent Scott Hadly contributed to this report.